


Fall For Me (Remastered)

by lazura234, lenkachu



Series: Falling [2]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Multi, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-04 07:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 67,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6648079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazura234/pseuds/lazura234, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lenkachu/pseuds/lenkachu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two friends are selected to play a game in the world of KHR. What tales of adventure, romance, and heartbreak will follow them as they progress through the story, both following and bending the rules?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: New Game

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: We don't own KHR at all except our ocs.  
> This is a remastered version of [Fall For Me](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3410684) by the same authors that we wrote back in 2012 until now. The complete fic can be found on ff.net as well [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8562165/1/Fall-For-Me).
> 
> Apology to Readers: We are sorry for not continuing this collaboration fic; however, due to personal circumstances, the story will only focus on two main characters from now on. Technically now a re:remastered

* * *

**_Five Years Ago_ **

* * *

“Happy Thirteenth Birthday!” Two voices chimed in sync. Two girls sat across from each other, each holding a nicely decorated box.

“You’re not handing me something that might scar me for life or give me a heart attack right, Vi?” The first girl narrowed her eyes at the other as the two exchanged presents.

“Hahaha…” Vi laughed nervously. “Why ever would you have that idea? I would never do such a thing! Lana, frankly I’m offended you would ever insinuate that I would do that!” She put a hand on her chest in fake offense.

“The last time you gave me a present, it was a bunch of drawings of my favorite characters’ faces on the body of horses, and the one before that was slenderman’s face in the box.” Lana recalled how loudly she yelled in a combination of fear and disgust. Her older brother, Will, was amused by the way she reacted to all of them.

“Ha! Oh yeah, that was priceless, I think I got a picture of your face when you saw it.” Vi snickered at the thought of it. “Mm sure maybe those gifts were weird, but I swear this one isn’t bad.”

Lana hoped so, otherwise she’d regret opening the box. “If you say so.”

“On the count of three.” Lana glanced at Vi for a bit to make sure they were opening at the same time.

“Should it be on three or go?” The other girl wondered out loud.

“You just want to open my present, don’t you?”

“You know me so well bud. Alright then on three.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three!”

The sound of ripping wrapping paper filled the room, followed by two loud gasps.

“It’s Enma!” Lana gasped in surprise as she turned the item around a few times, inspecting the plushie as if it was a vital piece of evidence. “A legit plushie of Kozato Enma! I thought they didn’t sell these due being a limited edition product!” A smile formed against her lips as she held the merchandise close.

“Chrome!” Several seconds of high pitched screaming caused Lana to cover her ears, looking concerned for the other girl. “I love her so much, oh my god, thank you. She’s so beautiful, I’m so emotional right now.” Vi hugged the plushie in her arms, fake sobbing. “I can’t believe this. It’s perfect, thank you so much!”

“You’re thanking me?! I should be thanking you for Enma! How in the world did you manage to get him?” Lana had to admit, Enma had lack of recognition due to only appearing in the manga for just two arcs. Therefore only a handful of people that made plushies of this particular character were hard to find.

Still hugging her own plush, Vi hummed softly. “Hmm, well it took a while, but I found someone that would do commissions for a good price.”

“Commissions?” Lana blinked in confusion, and glanced at the tag on the plush’s leg bearing a familiar logo was on the tag. “Wait, did you get the plushie from mickeycookies too?”

“Yeah—wait what do you mean too?” Cocking her head to the side, Vi checked the tag on her plushie. “Wow. This is… Absolutely surreal. What are the odds?”

“I guess we were thinking the same thing? I mostly saw Mukuro plushies than Chrome ones in actual KHR merchandise selling sites.” Lana knew how popular the pineapple headed boy was among the the large fandom, but she knew how much Vi loved Chrome over Mukuro.

Brushing away a fake tear, Vi nodded. “I know right? Why don’t people love my smol girlfriend?” Fake sniffling for more emphasis, she continued. “She’s just as good as Mukuro, and she’s just so cute. I mean, look at her!” Vi held up the doll and shoved it in Lana’s face.

“I don't need to see Chrome this close to my face Vi!” Lana pushed the plushie back to Vi, not liking how her personal space just got broken by a mere plushie. “Chrome is breaking my bubble.”

“She’s just so cute, I still can’t believe you got me this!” Tucking the plush under her arm, Vi got a gleam in her eye. “You know what a gift this awesome deserves?”

“What?” Lana held a look of confusion, unsure of what Vi was going to do. She scrunched her eyes at her.

“Group hug!” Vi grabbed Lana and, after a moment’s thought, grabbed the two plushies as well.

“Gah!” Lana couldn’t breathe; it was another one of Vi’s bone crushing hugs. “Vi.” She tapped the girl’s arm repeatedly to make her stop. “Let go, I can’t breathe.”

Vi looked down at the other girl with a straight face. “Nah, we’re bonding.” She continued the hug, squeezing tighter. “We’re having a bonding moment.”

Lana felt like she was dying of suffocation, oh wait she was. “Can I breathe now?”

“Yep, okay that’s enough bonding, you’re looking a little blue there, bud.” Vi grinned mischievously. “Well, I can’t wait to see how you’ll top this gift next year!”

After taking in a gulp of air, Lana laughed weakly while making a mental note that she shouldn’t have bought the owl plushie meant for Christmas.

* * *

**_Present Time_ **

* * *

**_Setting: Manila International Airport, Philippines @ 1:00 PM_ **

“It’s hot…” The young lady complained, panting lightly as she pulled a dark green leather luggage. “It’s too hot…!”

Stopping, the lady quickly tied her long black hair into a low ponytail, “Well that kind of beats the heat.”

Glancing back up, the person breathed out leaning her arms against the handle of her luggage, “Congrats Lana Vega, you finally made it to the airport where your well deserved air conditioning is waiting for you. Now if only it wasn’t too humid outside, I would’ve tolerated it better.”

“Vi’s so lucky that she’s closer to Japan than me.” She sighed out of jealousy as she fanned herself from the heat. “I have to leave so much earlier than her.” Sporting a white sleeveless halter top and jean shorts, Lana slowly made her way up to the doors.

“Ouch.” Lana heard someone groan in pain, and shifted her gaze over to the source. It was from an an elderly woman who seemed to be carrying five boxes of food while leaving. Nobody seemed to be helping her, so Lana rolled her luggage over to ask if the woman needed help.

“Do you need help?” Lana asked in her parent’s native tongue, the words felt awkward since she wasn’t so used to speaking the language. She had her fair share of having knowledge of Tagalog, but preferred speaking in English whenever her parents or relatives talk to her.

“Oh thank you so much young lady.” The woman kindly replied as Lana assisted the woman in taking some of her load. “My grandson was supposed to help me, but my grandson is very stubborn and hasn’t been helping me as much.”

“It’s not a problem ma'am.” Lana made sure the woman made it to an area where her grandson could see her. Though she seemed oddly persistent in making Lana stay a little longer to see her grandson. However Lana excused herself and made a mad dash back to the entrance. She remembered those tricks, those were the ways an elderly woman can lead you into matchmaking with their own relatives.

“Sorry ma’am but now’s not the time for me to get married. Especially to someone I barely even know.” Lana muttered to herself while wearing a frown at the thought of her marrying some complete stranger. Lana dragged her luggage with pride in remembering that she was going somewhere. “Plus I’d rather not be late for my flight, I need to meet up with Vi in Japan soon.”

By the time she headed back to the front doors, something caught her attention. Beside the front doors was none other than a trinket vendor. Halting her flip-flop covered feet, the brown eyes hidden behind glasses sparkled.

“Handmade jewelry and knick-knacks?” Lana walked over to take a closer look at the items. ‘ _Are there any bargains_?’

Among the souvenirs were carved wooden water buffalo and horse charms, seashell necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings. There were some rings with freshwater pearls, one of the most common gem souvenirs. But besides those, what was left was…

“Mood rings.” She blinked in surprise while taking a closer inspection of the said items. _‘Now that I think about it…the cheapest ones out of these items are the mood rings._ ’

“Miss?” The vendor’s voice snapped Lana out of her thoughts as he kindly gestured to a ring in front of her. “Do you wish to try it on? It wouldn’t hurt to try and see the color of your current expression.”

“O-oh…Alright I guess.” Lana calmly replied as she picked up the ring from the table. ‘ _I mean, it is a mood ring. Perhaps I should try to see what my mood is anyway_.’

Slipping the ring onto her left hand, Lana raised it up high above her head. Watching the swirls of colors change on her index, Lana hummed in curiosity as she tried to make out the current color of her mood. “Red? No, orange? Hm...it’s like a mixture. The color of blood oranges that resembles a garnet.”

_‘But why does this color seem familiar to me? Oh, that’s right. It’s from—'_

Before Lana could even finish the thought, a sudden poof burst forth. A puff of pink smoke left in place.

“The soft one is complete!” The vendor cheered for himself as he put on a checkered patterned hat. “On to the scary one,” he shivered before disappearing into the shadows.

**_Setting: Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan @ 2:00 PM_ **

A tall girl with straight black chin length hair sat in the back seat with her ankles crossed delicately, playing with her phone with her headphones plugged in. Loud pop music could be heard through her headphones.

The chauffeur pulled up to the curb and turned to face the girl. “Ms. Chang, we’ve arrived at the airport.”

She looked up at the call of her name and realized the car had stopped. Pulling out her headphones, she took a couple seconds to come back to herself before responding back in Mandarin.

“Thank you as always, Alex, for your excellent driving. Although how many times have I asked you to call me Vi?” She grinned at her family driver as she got out of the car. The man got out of the car and removed the girl’s luggage from the trunk. “Thanks again. Can I expect you to pick me up when I come back?”

He tipped his hat as he got back into the car. “Of course, Ms. Chang. Your mother also wanted me to pass along a message to ‘have fun in Japan with your friend and also don’t buy too much food.’ Do you want me to give her your reply?” he asked through the open window.

“Nah thanks. I can always just Line her when I’m inside.  Also just call me Vi already!” She pouted as she stepped away from the car. The car pulled away from the curb as the girl waved goodbye.

Purse on her shoulder, she adjusted her black leggings and ruffled lilac tank top and prepared to head into the building when suddenly an arm fell around her shoulder.

A cocky looking young man had put his arm around her. “Well, what’s a fine girl like you doing here? Did I hear you say your name is Vi?” He smirked in what he assumed to be a handsome grin.

Without missing a beat, Vi sunk her nails into his forearm and watched smugly as he flinched at the sharp pain. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” She bared her teeth and looked down on him. “You’re lucky that I don’t claw your face off right now. Get out of my sight.”

Paling quickly, the man whimpered a little, nodded, and retreated.

Vi harrumphed and checked herself. She dragged her large black rolling suitcase and walked into the airport. Looking around, she spotted an Eslite store and decided to window shop before she had to check in.

Entering the small bookstore, she offhandedly thought it was strange there was no one in there except the cashier. Shrugging, she spotted a couple of gachapon machines in the corner and approached in hopes of getting a small cute gift for Lana. The nervous shopkeeper kept a careful watch over the girl, anxious about the success rate of this attempt.

Upon seeing the girl arrive at the gachapon machines, the shopkeeper coughed lightly, catching the girl’s attention, “Excuse me, miss…are you in need of assistance?” Under his breath, he muttered, “Please say no.”

Having overheard the man be so negative, the young woman raised an eyebrow and turned to face the man, “Why of course! Thank you for offering!”

Stepping closer, she continued, “I’m looking for a gift for a friend. She likes cute things like baby animals and flowers.”

Panicking over the fact that she actually requested help, the clerk choked out a reply, “Well…Um…Let’s see now…Well we have…Rings! In the gachapon machines! They would make a great present for anyone!” Arm waving towards the gachapon section, he quickly took a couple steps away from the girl.

“Rings?” She looked at the machines and frowned. “Do you only have mood rings?”

The poor man whimpered in fear and nodded quickly, “Yes, I’m so sorry. Those are the only rings we have available at this time.”

“I guess they’re alright,” Vi mused and bent down to insert a few coins into the slots. After twisting the knob, a purple capsule orb rolled out. Grabbing the plastic orb, the cap fell off by itself revealing a mood ring and a corresponding color chart.

“What the fucking goddamn son of a bitch piece of shit shoddy packaging right there. Takes all the fun of opening it.” Muttering to herself, she rolled her eyes frustratedly and inspected the ring itself.

 _‘A bit cheap, isn’t it. Well it is a kid’s toy.’_ She put it on her right hand middle finger, turned to the nervous, sweating man, and showed it to him. “How does this look, sir?”

The man dabbed a checkered handkerchief across his forehead. “It is a very nice shade of purple, miss.” He gave her a nervous smile, until she turned her gaze to her finger.

“Huh, purple.” She contemplated the color in silence. “Well.” And then it all went up in a thick cloud of pink smoke.

“Thank god that’s over.” The salesman wiped himself with an entire paper towel roll, covered head to toe in a nervous sweat.

“Time to close up shop and report back.”

**_In an unknown location_ **

In a warmly lit room that looked very similar to a stereotypical living room, two clouds of smoke appeared around a table simultaneously.

“Oof…”

“What the fuck.”

Once the smoke cleared, the duo looked around and were shocked to see each other staring back from across the table.

“Vi?!” Lana’s voice practically croaked upon seeing the familiar friend, “I…I thought you were heading to your respective airport for Japan like we planned?”

“Yeah, I got to the airport and something happened. Eugh I feel like I got ran over by a plane.” Rubbing the seat of her leggings, Vi opened her fist to reveal an empty capsule as well as a mood ring on her finger. “I bet this has something to do with it. I remember everything up until I put this ring on.”

“Same, I can’t even remember how the vendor looked like after I saw the ring.” Lana raised her hand close to stare at the ring in worry before turning over to Vi, “This is starting to get weird now. Better yet, what’re we going to do? We don’t even know where we are.”

Vi looked around the unoccupied room and saw nothing out of the ordinary. “Well, I suppose–”

She was interrupted with a soft poof, not unlike the one that sent them there. A note appeared on the table between them.

“That’s some creepy magic mumbo jumbo going on right there.” Lana side-stepped over to Vi, hoping nothing else appears out of the blue. “Do you think we were kidnapped by some deranged magician or something?”

“Dude.” Vi gave Lana a look. “That would be so fucking cool. But let’s read the note first before our minds get away from us.”

Grabbing the note and turning it so they could both read, the duo mumbled out loud what was written neatly on the piece of paper.

  
**_Welcome~_ **  
**_I have decided to start a new game, and I have chosen you two as my new players. As you would call it in your world, think of this as your tutorial. I have left personal tutors there with you, who can be identified by their pink hair and masks, so take your time to learn how to fight and use the power of the rings. I will meet you once you are done. If, and only if, you win the game, you may go home. Until then, have fun learning the ways of this world._ **

**_-Checkerface_ **

Looking around, the duo found that there were suddenly two women with pink hair and black masks who were waiting for them.

“Thank you for waiting. We are the Cervello organization, serving directly under Checkerface. No more and no less. In this room of warped time and space, we’ll serve as your training instructors,” they said simultaneously, in oddly monotonal voices.

“Before we begin, please allow us to make one small change to the rings you currently have.” Taking a step forward to the two, they took their hands bearing the mood rings. Within their clasped hands, light shone from between the gaps of their fingers as the mood rings on each of the girls morphed into something else.

Rings embedded with gems corresponding to the color of what their mood rings were. Garnet and Indigo.

“What?” Lana gaped at the sudden change in the rings appearances as she tapped the item a few times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating, “A real gem ring?”

“Is this real silver? This is much better quality than the shoddy plastic of the mood ring.” Vi brought her hand closer to her face and grinned. “I wonder how much it’s worth.”

Snapping her thoughts back to their current situation, Lana addressed the mysterious duo who changed the items they just received. “Excuse me, but is Checkerface the one who pulled us in here?” It seemed odd that a man with the power to bring them to a mysterious place would send proxies instead of meeting them directly.

“That is correct. As we stated before, we are the Cervello, serving directly under Checkerface in order to aid you in your training. He will meet you when you are done.”

“I see.” Lana mumbled Vi quietly with suspicion in her eyes, “Hey, um…do you seem to find their names familiar or something? I can’t seem to put my finger on it.”

Vi shook her head, “Nothing comes to mind. Although, it sounds kind of Italian, don’t you think?”

With a snap of their fingers, two weapons appeared in the masked women’s arms. This surprised the heck out of the duo. After getting over their initial shock, they looked at each other, confused as to how the women did that.

The one standing before Lana held a white crossbow with the body shape of a pistol, and to her it seemed a bit too heavy for the masked lady to carry. However once the Cervello handed it to her anyway, but the unexpected weight of the weapon almost sent Lana to the nonexistent floor, “Heavy…”

She wondered as to how the lady was able to hold this in the first place, since she could barely even carry it as the masked being did.

The second Cervello handed over a thicker-than-average pink ruler with a slit in one edge. “Oh? What the hell is this?” Examining the offered gift, Vi waved the ruler around, until it opened to reveal a hidden blade. “Oh my god, it’s like a folding knife, but with a damn machete.”

One of the Cervello spoke up. “Now that you two have received your respective weapons…let the individual training begin.”

One could say earning free self defense training would be great. However the duo had no clue as to why they would need training in the first place. Getting transported into an unknown area practically with nothing in it except them, the Cervello, possibly this supposed Checkerface, and a table did nothing to help them understand their current situation. Nonetheless, the pink-haired women made them practice their given weapons and rings until they were satisfied with the two’s progress.

“You need to hold like this.” The Cervello helped fix Lana’s posture in holding the pistol-like crossbow. With the end touching the clavicle edge of Lana’s shoulder, the position of the weapon made it feel as if she were using a rifle. Lana’s hand visibly trembled as her finger tapped lightly onto the trigger.

“B-But…I never used a firearm in my life!” Lana grimaced at the pressure of using this particular weapon due to it having a recoil effect upon shooting the arrows. Just after one shot of an arrow, a punch from the body of the crossbow returned. It seemed painful enough as is. Though once the Cervello started teaching her about the purpose of the orange gem ring, t seemed easier on Lana’s means compared to handling the firearm.

“You must focus your resolve on this ring.” At first, Lana found it weird for the Cervello to mention it. She wasn’t really sure about her resolve in truth, but one thing was for sure. Lana wanted to find out the outcome of this supposed training in the first place. ‘Why were we chosen in particular? Why do we have to undergo training? Who in the world was this Checkerface? Who are the Cervello? Why did both of those names sound familiar to me when I can’t even recall a single thing? What in the world was the game Checkerface was proposing to the two of us?’ These questions continued to fuel her resolve, leading Lana to feel something warm envelope her hand. Although she had to admit, the orange flame dancing atop of the ring she wore seemed like a spectacular sight. “What a pretty hue…” She breathed in admiration of the singular color.

Now as for Vi, she was having the thrill of a lifetime as she stabbed, mutilated, and chucked her newly acquired sharp blade into the straw dummy. In the real world, she kept herself in prime health, running daily and keeping up with a self defense class. She had a lot of frustration to work out from this entire situation. She had too many questions about everything but it was obvious that the Cervello weren’t going to spill anything. So she might as well get the most out of their mandatory training lessons.

Suddenly she remembered something she saw from an action movie. She mentally calculated the move and decided it would be really damn neat if she succeeded. After she propped up a standing dummy, she stood in front of it, appraising it. Abruptly, she kicked her left leg at its face, spun on her feet, then simultaneously brought her left leg down and right arm up. The momentum caused her machete to swing faster and it completely beheaded the poor straw dummy.  It made the Cervello instructing her on the said weapon feel slightly wary of the Indigo-ring wielder.

“Ahaha!” Vi stood back and laughed haughtily at her new accomplishment.

Feeling like her physical skill was pretty good, she decided to focus on the part she was dreading: lighting the ring. She watched as Lana lit her ring and felt oddly frustrated. The indigo flame flickered in and out as Vi tried to focus her resolve onto the flame, until a burst of anger and frustration made her to throw the knife at the now headless dummy. Many things happened at once. The ring lit up, the weapon vanished in midair, and a hole appeared in the center of the dummy’s chest. Vi straightened up in surprise, mouth open. Her sudden change of emotion caused the ring to go out and the knife reappeared, with the blade tip showing in the middle of the dummy’s back.

In the background, the woman wondered if she should congratulate Vi or not on her accidental victory.

Little did the duo know, as soon as they had entered the space, the person known as Checkerface had quickly begun stealing most of their memories concerning a particular universe. Only leaving the bits and pieces they treasured most was all that was left. Converting these stolen memories into tangible crystallized shards, Checkerface turned those shattered memories into the crystallized center for their rings to help awaken the duo’s dormant power.

Each ring held a symbol in the center. A star within a pale yellow crystal. A crescent moon in the middle of a pure white crystal.

The star, a constant symbol of light and guidance, gently helping those who need it. Its light, while numerous and prevalent, can easily be hidden, can collapse on itself with too much stress, and can be lost if you take your attention away for even a second. The moon is a mixed symbol, waxing and waning, shedding light on things in the open and obscuring things hidden in the shadows. It hangs overhead, pulling and pushing, a mysterious presence that can mystify, yet undergoes phases that, once they are understood, are reliable.

Both the stars and moon are a constant presence in the sky, even if they are not always visible.

Checkerface grinned in amusement of the crystal rings held in his grasp, “What a curious pair of personalities…I wonder as to how they met?”

With the rings finally done, Checkerface turned his attention to the room holding the two individuals whose training seemed to be wrapping up nicely.

The aforementioned individuals were exhausted with learning something of which they wouldn’t think of using in their lives.

“Is this enough?” Lana questioned the Cervello who tutored her, “Are we finally going to meet this supposed person you’ve mentioned from before?”

“Come on, let’s get this show on the road.” Vi bounced on the balls of her feet and flipped her knife open and closed repeatedly. “Is he waiting for a formal invitation?”

The sound of a door opening made the two of them turn their heads to it. A tall man wearing a checkered-pattern hat and mask covering the upper part of his face stepped through into the room. Compared to the duo, he was dressed in a fancy suit ready to state his business. However the hat and mask kind of killed the image.

“Hello. You may call me Checkerface.”

“Congratulations on finishing the tutorial for the game, but I would also like you to think of it as a trial. There will be many more trials in the game to come that you must overcome in order to win. But like any good game, the tutorial would not just leave you finishing the tutorial and thrust you into the game play without some kind of support.”

He paused, handing each of the duo a ring of a different color and gem from those they already had. “I have created these to be your primary ring flames, as they more directly correspond with your soul as well as your mind . They would thusly react strongly to your desires and resolve. I’ll explain a little more on your individual flames after I finish explaining the rules.” It went without saying, of course, that he wouldn’t even consider telling them how he made the rings.

“Finally, like every game, there must be rules. First and foremost, I’m sure you will have some knowledge of this world. That knowledge cannot be shared with the other characters, and none of you can majorly change the timeline. There is a story to be told after all, it wouldn’t be good if the players could change it at their will, now would it?”

“Secondly, say nothing about your true selves and how you came to be in their world. We cannot have confusion and panic about our newly introduced characters. Third—” Checkerface paused, noticing a raised hand from Vi, “Yes?”

“Yes I have a question. Or more like multiple questions? First, where the fuck are we and what the fuck is happening? The knife was cool and all but I have shit to go back to. Like are you going to refund my airplane ticket since I’ve probably missed my flight? Is this some parallel universe or a completely different universe? You just magicked us into this world with some cheap jewelry, didn’t you? Who the fuck are you, a god or something? What exactly is this game of yours and why did we get chosen? What are the rules of the game? What’s the objective? How do we win? Why is my hand on fire but I don’t feel anything? Like what’s the whole physics behind this? Why did I get a ruler and Lana has a badass crossbow gun? That’s unfair, don’t you think? I mean I could probably handle a regular gun or something.” Vi ranted, voice escalating as she stared down Checkerface.

The masked man turned in Vi’s direction and somehow, Vi could just tell he was raising an eyebrow at her.

“Where’s my luggage? I had my DS in there!” Vi waved her hands in the air, looking frantic.

Lana sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, but at the same time, wondered about her own DS. She was in the middle of finishing the last parts of her most recent rpg video game and had yet to know the ending of its storyline.

“…You both seem to have many questions.” Checkerface dreaded the thought of answering any of their questions and simply decided that he wouldn’t, “They will be answered in due time. Let the game begin.”

 ***** POOF *****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The artist mickeycookies previously mentioned is a real artist. But too bad she doesn't make actual plushies; [she does make art commissions~!](http://mickeycookies.tumblr.com)


	2. Home Sweet Not

“Ouch!” Lana yelped upon landing face flat completely sprawled on what seemed to be a wooden flooring, “Not again…all I feel is pain this time though.”

“Dick move, man.” Vi lay flat on her back and shook her fist upwards. “So rude. Didn’t even answer any of my questions. I will have my vengeance.”

As Lana got up from the floor, she glanced over toward her friend only to gasp in shock from what she saw, “V-Vi.”

“Hm?” Vi sat up and looked over at the other girl in surprise. “Hey, how can you see me without your glasses?”

Lana bit her lip, realizing her vision was back to how it was during the end of middle school despite needing glasses in high school due to poor habits. Unsure of how to express her words, she slowly managed out, “That isn’t what I’m trying to say.”

Narrowing her eyes at Lana, Vi tilted her head in confusion. “Is it just me? Or do you look...smaller?”

“It’s definitely not just you, Vi.” Lana gulped nervously in response to Vi, “We are definitely smaller.”

“We?” Vi’s eyes widened comically. “What do you mean ‘we’?!”

By some mystical power, the two of them had reverted back into the preteen versions of themselves dressed in the same clothes they were wearing as adults except proportioned to fit their de-aged selves.

Lana blinked a few times in disbelief of the return of her former 20/20 vision, especially when she first saw her friend in her former middle school age. Though the phantom feeling of the glasses remained, Lana didn’t stop attempting to adjust where the said article used to be. A little bit embarrassed of the action, Lana stopped herself from doing anymore. Next she proceeded to raise her hand, trying to grasp for any hair lying on her back however it was only air she grabbed explaining the missing amount making it seem as if Lana was patting her back. Of what Lana supposed, she did the same thing as before except tracing her fingers around her neck. Bingo! As expected, the hair that was once Lana’s long black hair had indeed shortened to shoulder length. A luxury of relief on her back especially. Sending a glance down at her current body, Lana couldn’t deny the change in height or specific body proportions which shouldn’t be mentioned to a soul. Although Lana decided to confide to Vi later about it since she was also in the same situation of needing clothes for her thirteen year old self. In any case, Lana was somewhat glad that the clothes she wore as an adult had shrunk to a size more fitting.

In a panic, Vi quickly looked down at herself and found that the changes were true. Putting her hands on her head, she ran her fingers through her hair in shock. Her hair had grown from the chin length she had as an 18 year old back to the waist length she had as a 13 year old. In addition to the length, she also gained back the bangs that she had decided were a great idea upon entering middle school. She made a mental note to trim them a little or get some hair clips. Besides that, not much had changed regarding the straight and neat style. Her sight was a bit fuzzy since her contacts had disappeared during the transformation, but she had somehow obtained her old glasses. As she felt her face, she wished she could look at a mirror as her face was a little shorter than she remembered. Putting a hand on her chest, she realized that she was definitely in the body of a 13 year old. She had probably shrunk about half a head shorter and lost some muscle tone she gained in the last couple of years. She added on the the list in her head that she and Lana would need new clothes since the ones in their luggage wouldn’t fit anymore.

Abruptly, while the two were reacquainting themselves with their de-aged bodies, the sound of footsteps approached the room.

A familiar face appeared before them, standing in the doorway. “U-uuhhh, hi!”

“Aren’t you…” Lana blinked a few times before realizing who it was, “The person who showed me the mood ring!”

“You!” Vi lunged forward in rage.

She tackled the man to the ground as Lana screamed in the background. “It’s your fault we’re in this situation! Look at me! I have bangs for god’s sake! Fix it!” She shook the man after each sentence.

“Eek!” screeched the man, completely overwhelmed with fear, “I-I can’t! I’m only Master Checkerface’s subordinate in this game!”

Huffing at the man’s response, Vi reluctantly released the man and stood up, dusting herself off. “Ridiculous,” she sneered at the man as he got up from the ground.

“A-anyways, there were a few more things that Checkerface wanted to pass down to you. Consider them housewarming presents. Uhhh…Let’s see…” He searched his pockets until he triumphantly pulled out a small notebook from his inside jacket pocket.

“Hhmmmm, here we go! I am called Tsunomichi. You have already obtained your rings from Checkerface, but for everything else, I will be…your…care…taker???” He paused and brought the notebook closer to his face, scanning the notes again and again and again. “There must be some sort of mistake? Me? I can’t take care of them! Oh dear oh my.” Tsunomichi promptly fainted in shock, dropping the notebook to the floor.

“Uh…are you okay sir?” Lana waved a hand in front of his face, she kind of pitied the man’s situation.

“Well shit.” Vi stared at the man and then looked at Lana. “That one’s not on me.”

Sighing at the other girl and seeing that the man was not getting up anytime soon, Lana went over and looked at the open notebook. “Hm...From what it says here, we’re effectively the owners of this house, that he kindly granted us residence in. Our rooms have been already set up with our luggage in our designated rooms. We also have an unlimited bank account for all of our spending purposes. Tsunomichi, the person who fainted, is our caretaker as well as legal guardian since we are currently of middle school age and will be attending Namimori Middle School in the Japan of this world as of tomorrow.”

“Cool so we’ve ended up in Japan anyhow.” Vi was kneeling on the floor next to the body. One hand was inside Tsunomichi’s jacket pocket, while the other was holding a plain black wallet.

Lana worriedly nudged Vi, “I don’t think that’s the money we were supposed to get.”

“Shh, don’t worry. It’s free money.” Vi rifled through the wallet, pocketing the bills and cards. “I’m good now. Wait, on second thought…” She knelt down again and unlaced his shoes, taking them off.

“Vi, why?” Lana just stared at Vi incredulously as she robbed the man of his things. “You can’t even use the cards? Why his shoes?”

“I just like to ruin people's day, my friend.” She clicked her tongue and held up a peace sign.

Lana sent a frown to Vi, “From the looks of him, it seems like we already did enough.”

Turning back to the man on the ground, Lana recalled when he was in the airport. “You know what, he had a booth with a bunch of tourist trap souvenirs along with mood rings. So I tried one on, and I poofed.” Lana pondered, staring at her garnet ring.

Lana glanced over Vi, waiting for her to tell her experience with Tsunomichi.

“Gachapon.” Vi answered, blank faced.

“That’s all that happened? Really?” Lana said incredulously, before muttering to Vi in shock. “You’ve been conned by this man, I can’t believe he made you pay.”

“It was a poorly constructed cheap piece of shit gachapon. The stupid thing just popped open and took away all the fun of opening it. The ring was inside. Oh and the guy kept sweating, it was gross creepy.” Vi scrunched up her face, remembering the man’s many handkerchiefs.

Lana looked grossed out. “Wow.” was her only comment.

The duo looked around and found they were in some sort of living room. In the room was a sand sectional sofa, cream-colored curtains, and a tan tinted table. Sitting on top of the table were a map of the town, two keys to the house, and two copies of a black and white checkered credit card. After further inspection, each card had a different name on the front for the both of them.

The both of them each grabbed one of every item and put it away safely.

“Alright so we have everything we need, now it’s time for exploration. Where do you want to go first?” Lana asked the other.

“Upstairs!” Vi yelled as she started running towards the black spiral staircase that led to her destination.

Lana shrugged her shoulders, “Couldn’t we just explore on the floor we’re already on? Might as well become familiar with the ground floor of this house.”

“That’s boring! Nothing fun is ever on the first floor!” came a voice already halfway up the stairs.

“Well…let’s have a look around here…” Lana was going to move on, but then she remembered the fainted Tsunomichi. Feeling somewhat bad for the man, she got a pillow from the sofa and placed it under his head before she left to explore.

**_Upstairs_ **

Vi snickered to herself as she walked up the rest of the stairs. She reached the top of the stair landing and looked around the small room if you could even call it that. The spiral staircase led to a circular area with four different unlabeled doors, a sunroof, and a set of double doors that appeared to lead to a balcony.

“Ohoho, time to see what kind of neat things are hidden around here.”

She closed her eyes, spun in a circle, and chose a door at random. By chance, she happened to end up facing a light green door with a silver metal door knob.

“Alright let’s find out what’s behind door number one.” She opened the door slowly, building as much suspense as possible. Sunlight shined through the door frame as it creaked open inch by inch.

“God bless us. It’s a glorious game room.” Vi silently thanked Checkerface for providing them with the room and proceeded to examine every inch of it.

There was an HD LED flat screen TV on a black TV stand against the wall, with many consoles on the ground. On the other wall were multiple shelves of game cases organized by name and series. In almost random locations on the walls were a couple of posters from big name games, a poster of the periodic table of gaming weapons, and a poster of ironic video game rules.

Vi was distracted from reading the different game titles when something moved outside a window. She tiptoed over to the window, moved the curtain aside, and peered outside. The window seemed to be facing the front yard and Vi adjusted the map of the house inside her head accordingly. She looked for the movement that caught her eye and recoiled back when a bird flew past the glass.

“Bird! Ahh cheese that was startling. Holy crap, it is beautiful outside.” Vi recovered from the shocking bird appearance as she noted what sort of neighborhood they now lived in.

Deciding she was done examining the game room, she exited the room and wondered which one she would enter next. She looked at the remaining three doors.

“Might as well go straight across,” she proclaimed as she walked straight across the hallway towards a light peach colored door with a white door knob. She opened the door into a pink beige covered room. “Oh my god, this has to be Lana’s room. No one else would get a pink room.”

Vi began to investigate the room. “Huh, there seems to be a flower theme going on here. A blue flower coffee table, a red flower bedspread, and, oh wow, actual flowers, that’s a bit much, Checkerface. Are you trying to imply that she’s a flower? Ohoho~” She snickered behind her hand.

“Hm, very minimalist.” There was little furniture in the room, yet it seemed very cozy and inviting.

A brown tall dresser in the corner, a full sized bed with the aforementioned red flower bed sheets, the coffee table with four pillows on the ground around it, and shelves installed on the wall with a couple of books, a few orange scented candles, and oddly a bowl of plastic fruit.

On the walls, there were three posters. A list of astrological signs using a starry night sky background. A poster filled with fun facts about stars. Finally a poster of a periodic table of desserts. The ceiling held three star chandeliers, aligned in a triangle formation.

Next to the bed was a dark brown nightstand and on the nightstand was a light pink lamp. Beside the nightstand was a white window framed with light pink curtains with dark pink flowers.

“Oooh another window~” Vi observed as she opened the curtains with a grand flourish. She gazed out into the backyard like a queen overlooking her realm. “We have a fucking pool. Sweet.” She thought to herself that if the other room facing the backyard wasn’t hers, she might pitch a fit. The backyard was absolutely glorious.

Vi figured she was about done snooping through Lana’s room when she spied a glint behind the door she walked through.

“What’s this I spy?” She pondered as she closed the bedroom door. Behind the door were two sliding mirrored doors. “Oh it’s just a closet. Well, I wonder what kind of clothes Checkerface provided Lana with.”

She slid one door open and suddenly she was blinded by a flood of pinks and white.

“Aaaaah it’s too girly! How could you do this? I’m blind!” Vi yelled and covered her eyes as she shut the door as fast as she could.

“Oh my heavens,” Vi clutched her chest. “I think that’s enough snooping in her room for now.” She quickly left the room, making sure to leave everything the way she found it.

“Alright, two down, two to go.” The girl looked at the three remaining doors. “…Eenie meenie miney moe…Alright front room it is!”

She faced the grey colored door with a silver metal door handle. “Alright it’s either Mr. Creepo’s or mine,” she declared, turning the handle. Unfortunately the door would not open. “Well. Probably not mine then.”

A sudden noise outside caused her to jump. She slowly turned her head towards the double doors. Outside, sitting on the balcony was a fat black cat.

“Oh my goodness, you are adorable.” Vi immediately stood up and carefully walked to the doors, making sure not to scare away the cat.

She opened a door and delicately placed one foot onto the floorboards. The cat looked up. Vi stared straight into its eyes. The cat stared back. Vi leaned forward. The cat blinked. Vi brought her other foot outside. The cat raised one paw. Vi took a step forward. The cat twitched its tail. Vi raised one hand slowly. The cat put its paw back down. Vi slowly put her hand onto the cat’s head and the cat pushed its head into her hand, beginning to purr softly. On the balcony was a standing shelf full of assorted potted plants that Vi paid barely any attention to as she petted the soft cat.

“I have been truly blessed today.” Vi shed a single tear as she continued to pet the adorable creature.

After a while, the cat got up, stretched its legs, jumped onto the fence, and presumably walked into their backyard for more sunbathing. Vi followed suit and got up, stretching her slightly cramped legs.

“Aaahh that was relaxing…Alright, I don’t think there’s anything I can do in opening the creep’s room but hey I managed to get to the balcony.” She yawned lightly as she exited the double doors. ”Aha, I saved the best for last!”

Vi whistled the tune for The Final Countdown as she approached her lavender door with a black metal door handle. At last the final door opened and Vi stuck her head in, only to find to her utter amazement, an exact duplicate of her room from their original universe. Same white wall paint. Same purple bed with lavender sheets. Same white bookcase with the same books in alphabetical order by author. Same black desk table, same black desk chair. Same purple couch with the same black coffee table. Everything in the room was in the exact same position as her original room.

“What the fuck is this fuckery.” She deadpanned with a blank face.

As she walked around her room, she took in everything with growing agitation. The room was unsettlingly familiar to her and she had a determined look on her face as she approached a pair of mirrored sliding closet doors.

“I swear if what I think is in here is actually in here, someone’s going to pay for this,” she muttered darkly as she cracked her knuckles.

She slid one of the doors open and looked down at a plain white dresser. She opened one of the drawers and stared into it blankly.

“Someone is dying today.” Vi announced as she looked into her underwear drawer.

**_Ground Floor_ **

As for Lana, she headed straight into the corridor across the living room, it was an L-shaped kitchen connected to the area specifically for the dining room. The kitchen, divided into three segments, the first consisted of a wall oven, a wall microwave, a gas stove bearing four burners, shelves and drawers filled with necessary cutlery and dinnerware. The second segment had various machinery on the countertops: toaster oven, coffee machine, waffle iron, deep fryer, ice cream machine, anti griddle, food processor, blender, bread maker, and rice cooker. Finally a well stocked pantry and stainless steel four door refrigerator.

Last but not least the third segment, which was none other than the island which had the sink, cutting boards, and cleaning kitchen utilities.

“…This kitchen is practically like one of those model kitchens used for cooking shows!” Lana exclaimed to herself in shock of everything she found in the kitchen. Internally happy of the fact that she gets to cook in one of her dream kitchens, but at the same times felt weirded out by how on point most of the snacks in the pantry were all of their favorites, “That’s kind of stalkerish, and questionable as to how they figured out our taste in food.”

Moving onwards to the dining room, the area had a similar neutral color schemes matching the living room. A white birch dining table paired with six beige chairs, and a branched chandelier holding electric candles in glass crystal placeholders. Upon turning on the light switch for the chandelier, Lana spotted aqua colored placemats for each chair. Finally a beautiful glass swan vase holding two pink roses, a lily of the valleys, forget-me-nots, and one white lily decorating the center of the table.

“The dining room looks like it can be used for a housewarming party…a very expensive housewarming party.” Lana nodded to herself setting the idea as a reminder, “Maybe when we’ve settled in more, then next time we can do one?”

Continuing to the backyard connected by a sliding glass door paired with a screen in the dining room, Lana spotted a rectangular shaped fiberglass pool which shocked her for a moment.

“A pool…really?” Lana wondered exactly how Checkerface and Tsunomichi managed to get a pool, especially in a cramped town like Namimori. “This house seems more similar to the ones in the U.S. rather than a house in Japan. How in the world were they able to fit a pool?”

Besides the pool, the backyard in general had a zen garden in a small three foot square corner. Strangely enough, there was a fat black cat lounging on the warm sand, disturbing the lines that someone had carefully made. Other than that, there was a white solid board gothic top fence surrounding the area. Simple, but extravagant by all means. Returning inside the dining room, Lana made her way down the small hallway leading to the spiral staircase only to find two white doors using silver metal doorknobs before the stairs. One on the left and the other on the right.

“Let’s see…eeny meenie miney moe!” Lana’s hand pointed toward the door on the left. Turning the doorknob slowly, she peeked inside to find what seems to be a normal office room. The main internet router was beside the computer and laser printer that were both sitting on top of the black and white checkered desk. Further inspection led to a checkered landline telephone, checkered book shelves, checkered futon, and finally a checkered desk chair.

“Since it’s mostly checkered patterned, I’m assuming this is Tsunomichi’s office. I doubt Checkerface would use this room due to Tsunomichi being placed as our caretaker,” she pondered as she left the room.

Finally the other door was merely a bathroom following the usual color schemes as the rest of the ground floor. Toilet, a silver metal towel rack bearing three white towels, mirror, wall mounted white marble sink with a bottle of aloe vera liquid soap, last a birch cabinet holding toiletries and bathroom cleaning supplies.

“I think that’s it for the ground floor.” Closing the bathroom door behind her, Lana left to meet up with Vi for what she discovered from the upper floor.

As Lana walked back into the living room, she pondered on what to do next since Vi was still exploring upstairs. “Oh I know.” Lana clapped her hands together as a neat idea popped in her mind, “Since have an amazing kitchen, I might as well put it to good use.”

Lana silently gushed in bliss as she quickly turned around for the kitchen, “This house’s kitchen is practically the dream kitchen I’ve always wanted.” Though an abrupt thought interrupted her small bit of happiness, “Although I find it creepy that they managed to stock the pantries with most of the snacks we’ve eaten since we were young.”

Lana paled while shuddering at a thought. ‘What if they were spying us from the beginning?’ Shaking her head, Lana pressed onward to make a light meal for Vi and herself, “Maybe a sandwich? Hm, but Vi doesn’t like sandwiches with vegetables in it.”

“Probably a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for her then?” Lana nodded to herself in agreement of her choices, and proceeded to get the necessary ingredients. Turkey, ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and some mayonnaise for something filling. Then the jars of peanut butter and grape jelly to satisfy our friend’s hungry need for sustenance. “Don’t forget the bread too!” She reminded herself, but as she grabbed the bread, Lana glanced at the zen garden situated in the backyard from the kitchen window above the sink. “I wonder if the zen garden has anything to do with Checkerface? After all Vi and I aren’t fans of these types of gardens, unless we’re looking for a place to relax our mind.”

Lana continued to preoccupy her thoughts on the backyard and of what she recalled the words of the letter left from Checkerface to Tsunomichi while making six sandwiches. “Then again, I’m kind of skeptical as to how they even managed to fit both a garden and a pool here. I mean…isn’t Namimori more of a cramped neighborhood? I could be wrong…but doesn’t the name of this place sound similar to that one manga we used to read in middle school? Something about a tutor and an idiot middle school protagonist.”

The more Lana tried to recall the title of the manga, nothing would return to her mind at all. Lana mentally shrugged to herself while giving a small sigh. “Oh well, maybe I’ll remember it later on.”

After a few minutes, Lana returned all of the remaining ingredients back to the fridge and noted in the back of her mind that they might have to restock the fridge once they finished getting familiar with the area of Namimori. Taking the plate of sandwiches into her hands, Lana wondered out loud, “Maybe Vi finished exploring upstairs already?”

Soon a rain of loud footsteps sounded from the staircase, causing Lana to see the aforementioned girl out of breath by the time she reached the last step.

“Lana, holy fuck!” Vi pantomimed kicking a door open and held the pose for a couple of seconds before continuing to yell. “You’re never going to believe this! Wait, what the heck? Where did you get sandwiches?” Her train of thought was derailed by the appearance of food. “I can’t believe you’re eating a sandwich.”

“You could have some,” Lana offered gently pushing the plate of food to Vi’s direction on the table, “There’s some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches since I know you dislike the taste of tomatoes.”

“Aw yes, sustenance.” Vi dropped onto the couch and grabbed a pbj, shoving half of it into her mouth. She attempted to say something but the combination of a full mouth and peanut butter caused her speech to become unintelligible.

“Do you need milk to wash down the peanut butter?” Lana kindly suggested to the girl.

Vi finished her mouthful of deliciousness and cleared her throat. “I was gonna say that this would go great with milk, but nah, I’ll get it myself. Anyways, like I started saying before, both of you have to check out your room like right now,” she heavily insisted.

Lana held a look of confusion wondering about Vi’s insistence before returning her gaze at the said girl, “Why?”

“Just go. You’ll see for yourself.” She waved a hand towards the stairs, vanishing the door. “Your room is the peach colored door.”

Lana went upstairs, curious from Vi’s words, and quickly explored the rooms. Lana couldn’t believe what she saw, the similarities of the rooms in their original world were uncanny.

She gaped while taking in every detail of the room, “T-This can’t be…the ground floor was enough to make me cry for my wallet, but this is beyond the stalking ideas I had about Checkerface and Tsunomichi earlier! Heck there’s even actual Gerberas in the vase!”

She flinched, taking one of the flowers out of the vase sitting atop of the coffee table, it was genuine alright. From petal to stem including the fresh scent lingering off the flowers, it wasn’t fake at all. Setting the gerbera back to its respective placement, Lana scanned the walls to find three awfully familiar posters.

“How in the world were they able to get these posters?! The astrology posters were only made by my brother, there’s no other replica of them!” Lana touched the posters taped on the wall, and froze in realization. Turning her head in the direction of her dresser, Lana’s breathing hitched.

“D-Don’t tell me…” The girl’s face began to drain the more she slowly walked over to the dresser. Placing her hand on the right knob, Lana pulled the first drawer in silence. Until Lana muttered in a monotonous voice, “I don’t even want to know how they folded these.”

Lana walked out into the hall, unable to comprehend what she just saw in her recreated room. Lana walked downstairs in silence, disturbed from what she just saw.

While Lana was upstairs checking out her room, Vi decided to inspect the ground floor.

Grabbing the sandwiches, she quickly explored the rooms, noting the very fancy kitchen with fascinating cooking appliances, especially that ice cream machine and coffee machine. Setting the plate in the sink, she shoved the last sandwich into her mouth and headed into the dining room.

Vi raised her eyebrows in appreciation of the elegant decor, finding the chandelier extremely similar to the one in her house’s living room. "I suppose our bedrooms weren't enough, they just had to steal my chandelier, too?"

Shaking her head at the audacity, she gazed out at the backyard. "Holy dang, a pool. That's not something you see everyday in Japan." Unfortunately for Vi, the cat that Lana spotted had already disappeared when Vi got to the backyard. Well, you can't win them all, I suppose.

Heading out the dining room, Vi walked down the hallway spotting two closed doors. Curious, she opened the first door, only to see a boring office. Frowning, she walked out and checked the other door. "Just a bathroom. Boring."

Walking back to the kitchen, Vi opened the pantry, noting several of hers and Lana's favorite foods. "Well. That's not eerie at all." Grabbing a bag of chips, she set it on the counter, found a nice glass in a cabinet, and poured herself a glass of lactose free milk. “I don’t even want to know how they know about my lactose intolerance.”

Heading back into the living room with her milk and chips, she set them on the coffee table and flopped onto the couch. She sat up immediately. Something was off.

Leaning back onto the couch, she noticed the couch would shake slightly with each movement. As if one leg was uneven.

“How would a house this perfect have an uneven couch?” Frowning, Vi got up and knelt onto the ground peering underneath the couch. “Aha.”

Standing up again and dusting herself off, Vi shoved the couch back. “Nice job, me. Found a trapdoor. Achievement get.” Tilting her head in thought, she decided to push the couch back. “I bet Lana hasn’t seen this yet. Might at well surprise her. Ohoho.” She flopped back onto the couch, grabbing her food.

When Lana finally came downstairs, Vi was sitting cross legged on the couch, drinking a glass of milk and eating directly out of a large bag of chips that was already half eaten. “So was it creepy or what?” She stared daggers at Tsunomichi, who was still on the ground unconscious.

In a slight agitated tone, Lana expressed her dismay to Vi while situating herself beside her two friends, “He got everything in exact detail, even the fresh gerberas sitting in the vase. I can’t even believe they managed to get the special posters my brother made for me back home.”

Vi’s voice escalated as she grew more indignant. “My underwear drawer! Their filthy mitts were inside my drawers! How will I sleep at night?! On silk sheets with satin pillow covers, I guess, since they took those too!”

“…I don’t even want to know what they did when they were arranging our clothes.” Placing her face into the palms of her hand, Lana mumbled discomfortable of the dresser incident that happened a few minutes ago.

Vi shook her head, getting the bad thoughts out of her head. Changing the topic, she asked, “So Lana, how was your exploration of this ground floor?”

Lana’s eyes suddenly sparkled the minute Vi mentioned the ground floor, “We have my dream kitchen! The dream kitchen I planned to have when I retire!”

Her hands were formed into fists, ready to shake in glee as she rambled on and on about it. “Everything down to the separate island to the stove and refrigerator! I’m practically drooling at the multiple types of food I can make in this fabulous kitchen solely meant for the rich!”

“My mom used often told me how the kitchens are at her work, but having your own private kitchen to serve good meals is practically a dream come true.” Lana was close to drooling at the thought of what else she could make in that kitchen. “Oh gosh, we can make so many types of food now to satisfy our stomachs.”

By the time Lana calmed down, remembering that she needed to mention the other parts of the ground floor, she asked Vi out of curiosity. “Did you manage to see the other rooms besides the amazing kitchen?”

Vi nodded. “Our dining room is pretty nice too. Very fancy decor. That chandelier bears too much a resemblance to the one in my house though.”

“Yeah, I’m still in amazement as to how they managed to fit a pool and a zen garden in the backyard of this house. I mean isn’t Namimori a small town?” Lana pointed out, unsure if she was seeing things right or not.

“Hm.” Vi hummed softly. “I only glanced at the backyard quickly, so I didn’t see the zen garden. I did think it was odd we have a pool in Japan. I mean who has a pool in Japan?” She shrugged, making a face. “It is a mystery.”

“A mystery that won’t be solved.” Lana added on to VI’s statement, while to mention the remaining part of the ground floor. “The last place I saw was an office completely checkered themed across from a small bathroom.”

“I’m assuming it’s for either our dear caretaker that’s currently fainted in the middle of the entranceway or for the person who placed us in this game.” Lana had some doubt on the latter being true, since Tsunomichi would be the only one with them. No Cervello or Checkerface to watch their every move, only poor weak-hearted Tsunomichi.

Shrugging again, Vi replied. “Offices are boring. By the way, there’s a locked room upstairs that I’m guessing is the bedroom of our ‘dear caretaker’ currently KTFO.” She put up air quotes around the borrowed words, making sure to put as much disdain into her words as possible. “I’m pretty sure Checkerface would not live with us, but personally I’d prefer a Cervello instead of this dude.”

“Me too.” Lana nodded in agreement. “Yeah so I think I got everything that’s on this floor.”

Grinning mischievously, Vi looked at Lana intently. “Are you sure that’s all on the ground floor?”

Lana made a questioning sound. “Yes? Is that a trick question?”

“I don’t believe you’ve seen all the secrets this house holds.” Vi stood up, gesturing grandly. “Prepare to have your mind blown!”

Confused, Lana watched as Vi pushed the couch back, then widened her eyes in surprise. “Oh my.”

“Ta da! Trapdoor basement!” Vi made jazz hands as a mysterious wooden panel was revealed. “I bet you haven’t explored this!”

Lana’s eyes widened in surprise, making a few side glances back at Vi while staring at the panel in disbelief. “Is this for real?”

“Do you need me to pinch you?” Vi moved towards the other, making crab pincer motions.

“No!” Lana raised her hands in a protective stance, taking a few steps away from Vi. “Your pinches are terrible, especially when your nails are long and filed!”

Grinning widely, Vi raised up her hands like a cat. “Nya.”

“Please not now.” Lana silently pleaded, feeling a sense of dread.

“Ny’all.”

“Why.” Lana narrowed her gaze at Vi, wanting to face palm herself.

“Because your face. Ohoho!” Vi snickered at the other girl’s reaction. “Anyways, trapdoor! Explore!”

“What if there’s a possibility that we might die the moment we enter the basement?” Lana brought up, wondering why the panel was hidden on purpose.

“Then we die like men. Or teenage girls. Or young adult women stuck in the bodies of teenage girls. Who needs specifics?” Vi lifted the trapdoor. “Shit that’s dark.”

The trapdoor opened to a small square hole leading to a mysterious darkness.

Lana could feel her adrenaline rushing at the sight of the trapdoor, “That just screams death on many levels.”

Vi crouched down and felt a metal ladder on one side of the hole. “Well, my bud. Curiosity killed the cat. Nya.” She dropped down into the hole, grabbing onto the rungs and ignoring Lana’s screaming above her.

“Vi!” Lana screeched in pure horror, and followed after her friend down the trapdoor.

**_Downstairs_ **

“Oof.” Vi slid down the ladder a little too quickly for her liking. “Note to self. Wear gloves the next time you do that. Or just grab onto the rungs like a normal person. Assuming we’re still alive for a next time.”

Lana carefully climbed down the ladder after Vi, making sure her shoe hit the step while going down the notch. “Unless we do die.”

“Wow, Lana.” Vi shook her head at the other girl in the dark, even though she couldn’t see it. “That’s. Pretty dark. Situational humor. Ha.” She turned around, trying to sense where the walls were.

“I’m just being serious if it does end up happening.” Lana shrugged while hoping in the back of her mind that the situation doesn’t escalate to it.

Moving towards Lana since she was closest to the wall, Vi swung her arms around trying to find a light switch. “I don’t think they’d put something in this house to kill us. Unless it’s a burglar trap. Or unless they thought we wouldn’t find–Aha! A light switch!”

“Wait don’t turn on–ah! My eyes!” Lana covered her gaze once light blinded her field of vision.

Vi gasped at the sight of the basement. “Oh wow. This is definitely something else.”

The room was sectioned off diagonally in quadrants, each with a different flooring. In the middle each wall, besides the one behind them, was a plain white door with a sign. The left door had a very brightly labeled ‘DO NOT ENTER’ sign, which seemed very suspicious. The middle had a fancy, overly floral ‘Bathroom’ sign, which would have seemed out of place in the room, but somehow managed to fit in perfectly. The right door had a big gray sign with pictures of guns, swords, and other general weapons, which may have seemed odd, but was pretty normal considering the room they were in.

The secret basement was in fact a state of the art training room.

“Lana, holy shit.” Vi looked around the room in amazement. “Are you seeing this?”

“My eyes are still blinded, and this kind of makes me miss my glasses but just give me a few seconds.” Blinking a few times, Lana slowly opened her eyes to find an organized training room instead of supposed death. “Whoa.” She mumbled to herself in amazement.

The section they were currently in had a hardwood flooring. Behind them was a mirrored wall with a wood balance barre. In the corner was a couple of rolled up yoga mats.

The left section had a vast array of cardio machines. A treadmill, an elliptical, an exercise bike, and more things that they couldn’t remember the names of. Taped onto the machines were brief instructions on how to use them.

“Hm, fancy.” Vi nodded in appreciation.

The section across from them appeared to be a sparring area with a cushioned mat. A couple of sparring dummies were stored in the corner. In contrast to the other walls, the wall had several targets on it, presumably for target practice.

“Oh wow, a target practice.” Lana pondered to herself, ”This would be quite useful if we needed to do better on our aim for long range attacks.”

The right section was almost a mirror of the left, except there were weight machines instead of cardio. In addition, the flooring was black tile, the opposite of the white tile of the cardio section. There were a couple of dumbbells in the corner, starting from 2 pounds all the way up to 20.

“Do you think this was created to increase our training compared to our time in that void with the Cervello?” Lana asked Vi, unsure of whether it was Checkerface who made the training room or the Cervello themselves.

“Oh god, if we’re going to be put through training again, I think I’d just rather die.” Vi groaned in agony. “I’d rather this just be our own optional gym. Emphasis on optional.”

“Well they gave us our weapons for a reason.” Lana pointed out at first, but paused for a moment. “Wait a second, does this mean Namimori isn’t a normal place here in Japan? The training room kind of raises a lot of questions even though we were trained in that weird void.”

Vi opened her mouth to respond, then paused. “That. Is a very good question. What kind of world are we in that would require these kinds of weapons and training. And what the hell is up with fire rings? What was that? Nobody answered my questions! I have so many!” She threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

“Maybe that guy, Tsunoimichi I think, knows something.” Before Lana turned around to head over to the ladder, she spun around to face Vi to point and remind her. “Don’t scare the life out of him this time. We need answers first.”

Vi pouted. “I promise nothing. The sanctity of my underwear drawer was destroyed.” She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

“You can mention that after I get the answers we need from him.” Lana resumed her first action and made her way over to the ladder.

“Mmm.” Vi tapped her finger on her chin. “Compromise. I will try very hard not to murder him immediately on sight.”

**_Ground Floor (Again)_ **

The two had just closed the trapdoor and pushed the couch back into place when a groan from the ground sounded. It seems like their dear caretaker decided to regain consciousness at a very poor time.

“Good morning, you creepy pervert.” Vi suddenly appeared in his line of vision.

Tsunomichi, only barely conscious moments before, screamed bloody murder as he scrambled to stand up. Once he was righted, he coughed a few times in embarrassment before trying to regain a little of his dignity.

“H-hello…again.” Poor Tsunomichi trembled in fear of the girl’s increasingly aggressive behavior toward him. He almost immediately regretted what he said next, “How have you been finding everything? I hope it’s been satisfactory?”

“Satisfactory?!” Vi was about to murder the poor quivering man, but restrained herself somewhat. “If you think that finding out that you somehow copied my underwear drawer is satisfactory, you’ve got another thing coming!” she snarled out, baring her teeth like she would rip his throat out without a second thought.

Lana watched Vi threaten Tsunomichi, who looked ready to faint again. She debated internally with herself what she should do.

In his fear, Tsunomichi managed to yelp out, “Wait! There’s still important things I haven’t told you about the game!”

Vi paused and narrowed her eyes at Tsunomichi. In her head, she weighed the pros and cons of letting him talk or knocking him out again.

Lana, finishing her short inner turmoil, removed her face from the palms of her hand. She marched her way over to Vi who was currently terrifying the supposed subordinate of Checkerface.

“Vi.” Lana set a hand on the respective shoulder of the girl, not wanting to yell at Tsunomichi, since he didn’t see what Checkerface had in store for him. Although deep down, Lana wanted to do the same thing Vi was doing to Tsunomichi; however the man was attempting to say something. Thus the need for them to stop shoving their complaints at Tsunomichi was brought to her attention, “He’s trying to say something to us. Let’s hear what he has to say first of all, and push our anger toward Checkerface since he’s the sole reason as to why we’re here. Tsunomichi was probably only following orders like an obedient assistant.”

Tsunomichi literally wanted to cry, though he felt somewhat grateful of Lana being there to stop them.

“I’ll listen to what he says, but I don’t have to like it.” Vi walked past Lana and turned to face Tsunomichi. Quickly, behind Lana’s back, she made eye contact with Tsunomichi and drew a finger across her throat.

“Vi, I saw that.” Lana gave a huff and pointed at the kitchen, “Go get some chips from the pantry and sit at the couch. Don’t make me go confiscate your DS that’s probably in the game room I saw earlier or better yet, I’ll change the wifi password to make the internet only accessible without you.”

Vi sighed heavily. “Alright, mother.” She flopped onto the couch with exaggerated movements and shoved a handful of chips into her mouth, somehow managing to pout with a mouthful of food.

Tsunomichi straightened his tie and cleared his throat before beginning, “What you two have been given are called the Sky Rings. Each flame color has a characteristic and ability attributed with them. Orange sky, cielo, is harmony, which depending on the kind used is stable or powerful. Red storm, tempesta, is disintegration, which can decay whatever it touches. Blue rain, pioggia, is tranquility, which can be used to induce stillness. Yellow sun, sereno, is activation, which has the power to stimulate activity . Green lightning, fulmine, is hardening, which can strengthen or solidify objects. Purple cloud, nuvola, is propagation, which can increase the size and number of items. Indigo mist, nebbia, is construction, which aids in the creation of illusions.”

Vi looked down at her ring. “So this is a Mist ring, huh? Interesting.”

Lana raised her brow at Tsunomichi as confusion filled her face, “But mine is practically a mixture of red and orange. How am I supposed to tell it’s Sky or Storm?”

Tsunomichi blinked. “Oh yes. Um, well...Checkerface mentioned about yours. Your ring is indeed sky, just a different shade.”

Lana stared at Tsunomichi in disbelief, feeling that there was something odd with that statement, but didn’t persist in looking into it.

“Your primary flames, the moon and star, are slightly different in a sense that they are not native to this world. They are a newly made, original flame that belongs to you only. The moon is a balance within itself, a balance of creation and deconstruction. The star is relatively powerful in both supporting and inflicting different statuses on others. However, in terms of power and ability, that is completely dependent on yourselves and your imaginative ability.” Looking up from his notes, he jumped slightly at the duo’s intense stares. “It is uhhhh…Probably better for you two to experience it yourself first. We do have a-aa-a practice room available downstairs, if-if you looked down there already…”

“Actually, why don’t you join us, I’m sure we could use your guidance.” Vi smiled innocently, all trace of the previous girl who was ready to murder hidden behind a sweet mask, “You would be a great help to us.”

“Could you please stop bullying him?” Lana frowned at Vi, dissatisfied with her response to Tsunomichi, “We’ll figure it out on our own; otherwise I’m adding more to the punishment that’s willing to be set in motion.”

“R-right…” Gulping down his choked saliva, Tsunomichi brought up a topic in particular, “Oh that’s right! Master Checkerface didn’t finish mentioning the rest of the rules for the game, correct?”

Taking out a folded piece of paper from his dress coat, Tsunomichi straightened himself to announce the complete set of rules for their game, “First and foremost, you two aren’t allowed to tell anyone about your primary flames. Due to them being foreign from this specific world, it is a taboo to say a peep of it! Second, you mustn’t say anything about your true age. It’d be definitely quite a disastrous situation if the people of this world find out your true age. You have to keep in mind that you are middle schoolers going to Namimori Middle School while playing the game. Third, in this game you’re not allowed to interfere into the plot already situated in this particular world. Fourth, just as serious as the previous rule, this one reminds that none of you are to kill any of the main story members. Last but not least, none of you are allowed to tell the characters residing here the truth about themselves in your world. It would upset the balance of the storyline and cause massive confusion for the characters realizing their true identities.”

Finishing off the list, Tsunomichi quickly handed the list of rules to Lana, as he was beyond terrified of the other. Quickly retreating backwards, he coughed to regain their attention. “Your uniforms will be arriving later today, as well as some student identification cards, and then you two will be going to school tomorrow! In the meantime, feel free to explore Namimori at your leisure, as it will be your residence for the foreseeable future. If you need me, I’ll be in my office.” Once he finished, he turned to the hallway and entered the room on the left.

Once the door shut behind him, Lana stared at the paper in her hands, then returned her gaze over to Vi.

“Should we look over the rules again?” Lana proposed, handing the paper over to Vi.

 

RULES

  * No telling about the primary flames
  * No telling about your true ages/backgrounds
  * No interference with the main storyline
  * No killing of main characters
  * No telling characters the truth about themselves in your world



Vi scanned through the list quickly. “You know, these rules aren’t very specific. Lack of clarification means loopholes. Whoever wrote this list should never be a lawyer.”

“Maybe we could tweak them a bit?” Lana suggested, finding the rules not as strict as she expected them to be.

The duo decided to make a list of the ways they could bend the rules without getting punished on the back side of the sheet they received.

 

LOOPHOLES:

  * No telling = No saying. We can “demonstrate” in other ways.
  * It’s only recommended we act our age.
  * Main doesn’t mean everything or everyone.
  * It doesn’t say that we can’t hurt the main story members
  * There’s really no point in doing so.



After making the list, they were satisfied with what they had come up with and decided to listen to Tsunomichi for once and venture outside.


	3. Out Into Town

Before leaving the house, the duo decided to change into more suitable clothes for their new setting. They went up to their rooms and met in the living room when they were ready to set out.

Vi tied up her hair into a high ponytail and was now sporting a medium black crossbody. She switched her leggings to a pair of black shorts, but kept on her lilac tank top. Putting on a black windbreaker completed her outfit. Lana exchanged the clothes meant for her adult self for a peach colored t-shirt bearing a red cherry decal, paired with jean capris to match.

Once they were all decently changed, they met back in the living room where the map of the town waited for them on top of the table. Quickly, Lana grabbed the map and unfolded it. On the map, there were several locations that were already circled and labeled, including the school they were supposed to go to, their house, the nearest market and shopping district, a post office, a few restaurants with small notes rating them 5 out of 5 checkered hats, a few shrines, some parks scattered here and there, an arrow pointing off the map that was labeled simply as ‘Kokuyo Land’, a circle in a random residential area, and a few circles around nothing.

Pointing at the shopping district, Vi declared, “Ohh, I want to go shopping! We could use some clothes, right?”

“We don’t really need to go shopping since our clothes have shrunk a bit, haven’t they?” Lana pointed out to the excited girl. “Plus the clothes in our closets have also somehow shrunk.”

“Let’s go shopping anyways!” Vi whined, wanting to go on a shopping spree. “One can never have too many clothes. Especially with our new unlimited bank accounts!”

Lana reluctantly sighed and agreed to go shopping with Vi, remembering the times she was constantly dragged against her will. Folding up the map and slipping it into her bag, she saw her phone to show it to Vi. “By the way, did you find your phone in your luggage upstairs too?”

Nodding sagely as she pulled her phone out of her purse, Vi had a very serious tone. “Yep and I tried calling my house but it wouldn’t connect at all.”

Lana seemed upset at this knowledge, but started going through her contacts, “Alright, but I’m pretty sure that we can still call each other—" She was cut off by her phone singing the Love Hime song.

Vi held her phone triumphantly in front of her, “Haha! It does work. Calling each other. Also I can’t believe you have that as your ringtone.

“No one can stop the power of the Love Hime song.” Lana reminded Vi and almost tried to push up her nonexistent glasses, “Besides it’s infectiously addicting to listen to.”

They each took a picture of the map with their phones so they wouldn’t get lost if anything happened. Once they stepped out of the house, they locked the door using their new house keys.

“So shopping district it is?” Lana asked Vi again to confirm their choice.

“Yeah, I’m curious to see what the fashion here is like,” Vi wondered out loud. “How different do you think this world will be from our world?”

“Shh!” Lana shushed Vi while covering the girl’s mouth using her hands, and then made a few worried side glances to check their surroundings before returning her focus to Vi. “You can’t say that here, Vi. We don’t know who could be listening into our own conversation right now.”

Vi raised her eyebrows at the other girl and took Lana’s hand off of her mouth. “Chill bruh. What are the odds that someone would be listening to us?”

But little did she know how true her words were.

“It’s just a safety precaution, I don’t want us to get in some mess before we even explore this town.” Lana admitted, unsure of how to comprehend her feelings about the game.

In the midst of their conversation, a certain person just happened to be passing by. Overhearing snippets of their strange conversation, the figure began to follow them, curious about this duo.

“I suppose. Do you think we should come up with a code then?” Vi wondered out loud.

“How long has it been since we last used secret codes?” Lana tried to recall the last time, and all she could remember the weird expressions people made toward them whenever we spoke of the codes.

Vi thought for a second. “Middle school probably? Most of the ‘codes’ we used were just numbers though. Like 8059 and 1869, I think. But there were some with letters like D18 or XS.”

“Really? No wait, let me rephrase that.” Lana clapped her hands together and raised her hand close to her mouth to take a deep breath before pointing at Vi, “Why those codes?”

Vi shrugged and made an ‘I don’t know’ noise. “I don’t remember many other codes. I don’t even know why I just remembered those codes.”

“Do you even remember what they mean?” Lana couldn’t remember much of the meaning behind those codes, heck she wasn’t sure if they referred to characters or some odd way of communicating to make them seem unique.

“Well, if I recall correctly… Oh. Hm.” Vi scratched her head. “That’s weird. I don’t remember exactly what they meant. I think it was characters or something?”

The person narrowed their eyes toward the duo, suspicious from their words. When the duo stopped to look into the window display of an accessory shop, the figure quickly, let’s say, ‘borrowed’ the wallet from Lana’s bag.

A glance at the ID card inside told them everything they needed to confirm their suspicions. The girl in the picture was 18 years old, but the girl who carried the ID card was very clearly not 18. They furrowed their brows in perplexion and returned the wallet to the bag, without the owner ever suspecting a thing. There were plans to be made and people to be confronted, so they took off.

In the meantime, the duo, unaware that they had just been pickpocketed, continued with their shopping. They entered the accessory store, each heading over to their respective interests.

“I want the bow hair clip, I really do.” Lana contemplated between a hair clip and a necklace she spotted from the window out of interest, “The black bow clip or the metallic silver star necklace?”

The clip was mostly made up from a black ribbon tied onto a barrette while the necklace consisted of a silver-colored star made up of metal held on a chain. The bow would look good as a daily wear whereas the necklace could do pretty well with outings around town, she remembered in the past that she never had time to buy something to look cute or anything. All that was in Lana’s mind were mostly studying to get into medical school. Not a single interest was made, but she was quite fond of being able to do this again.

“Then again I could buy both.” Checkerface did give them an unlimited bank account, although at first Lana perished the idea of splurging money. Lana decided that only this time she would be guilty for spending on something more than what she needed most. She didn’t hesitate when she brought the two items over to the cashier to pay, “Guilty as charged.”

Vi was busy looking at the earrings, grateful that she had gotten her ears pierced at a young age and wouldn’t have to get them repierced after the age change. “Hoops are kind of a bold statement, but studs are always in fashion. Pearls are nice, if not a little mature for a teenager. Dangling earrings might be too flashy for a kid. A simple gem would do nicely, although plain silver works just as well,” she pondered out loud.

“So many options to choose from. Ooo owls!” Vi spotted a pair of small owl shaped earrings. They were studs with the outline of an owl in metal and tiny black gems for its eyes. There were many different animal earrings in the display alongside it, like doves and cats. “Ah I want them all, they’re so cute! Wait, I could totally get them all with my fancy new card. Bless you creepy old man.” She grabbed all the cute earrings she wanted, including the owls, a pair of cats, plain silver small hoops, a simple gold chained ear cuff, and a moon phases earring set. A shop attendant handed Vi a basket when they saw how many items she was holding.

As she inspected her new earrings, she walked past the ring display and caught sight of a purple gem that reminded her of her new ring. “Well, I guess since I’m adding a ring to my outfits now,, I might as well get a few more.” Vi leaned in to get a better view of the different designs. “Gold rings are a bit tacky if they’re not top quality. Silver rings are better since almost anyone can wear them. Although you wouldn’t see a middle schooler walking around flashing a diamond ring. Colored gems are good, too, although I’m pretty sure no one would wear a mood ring all the time…” She made a face, thinking of their own mood rings. She decided on a plain black band that was engraved with a silver crescent moon and a silver snake with inset black eyes that could wrap around a finger.

Taking her basket over to the cashier, she noticed a sheer lavender scarf that matched her outfit. Making a quick decision, she grabbed the scarf and added it to her purchase. Vi mentally thanked Checkerface again for the money, already planning what to buy at the next store.

Next door to the accessory shop was a clothing store, and after glancing inside, they both decided to browse through.

Lana browsed through a section filled with pastel colored blouses, debating whether she should get some more until she came across the latter half. Mostly full of skirts, which silently made Lana cringe a bit by some of their lengths. Not to mention the shorts. Speed walking past the skirt and short aisle, Lana made a beeline for the pants and capris area of the store.

Sliding through the hangers of pants and capris for the right size, Lana finally found a white capri pant to go well with most of the pastel colored blouses hanging in her closet. Better yet, Lana managed to discover a black skort sitting within the capris. Probably a shopper gave up trying to return it to the previous aisle, lucky for her the skort is just right.

“Thank goodness this store sells skorts.” Once she found a few more skorts in both brown and navy, Lana headed over to the hats section. Lana pondered a bit on which kind of hat she’d decided to get. The brown yarn beanie with a cute button accent, the nice straw sun hat adorning a blue ribbon with white polka dots, and finally a jean designed baseball cap. They all weren’t too bad.

“Would I care to splurge again?” Lana knew she would regret the minute she headed to the cashier with all three. However, it wouldn’t hurt to have three new hats. Hats were a necessity for facing the weather, “I would, and I shall.”

Taking the clothes and hats over to the person at the register, Lana settled by giving a smile to the cashier, “Hi, I’d like to pay for these.”

Once Lana became content in buying the new sets of clothes to add on, she decided to make her way outside the shop to wait.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lana spotted Vi walking in and out of the dressing rooms with arms full of clothes. She grabbed several pairs of black skinny jeans, one pair of jean shorts, several pairs of leggings in different colors, and several skirts of varying lengths. She walked out with two pairs of jeans, a dark blue pair of leggings, a black pleated skirt, a red pleated skirt, and a long flowing gray maxi skirt.

Putting her chosen items in a shopper tote, Vi went over to look at tops. She picked out several t-shirts with slogans like “I’d rather be sleeping” or “All I care about is cats and like 2 people” and other shirts with designs like cute animals or flowers. Several tank tops of multiple colors, two sweatshirts, a plain black jacket, a blue hoodie, a purple blouse, three plaid button-downs, a long sleeved blouse, two short sleeved blouses, and three sleeveless sundresses all went into the cart after a short inspection. The dressing room attendant gaped a little at the amount of clothes Vi had selected before waving her into a room.

When she was content with her appearance, she left the dressing room, leaving with two tank tops, the black jacket, the purple blouse, a pink plaid button-down, and two sundresses, one in cream and one in white with red accents. As she was in line for the register, she realized a detail she had forgotten until that moment.

“Why did I get this many clothes? We have a school uniform.” Her eyebrows scrunched looking at her chosen clothes, wondering if it was worth it. “Screw it. It’s not my money, make it rain.” The cashier was taken aback at the sheer amount of clothes the girl had brought, but said nothing.

Thus, Checkerface’s bank account took its second hit of the day.

Vi was carrying four bags at this point, while Lana had two small bags.

Looking at Lana’s bags, Vi remarked, “Wow, I can’t believe you bought so little. We have unlimited money!”

“I don’t like spending too much.” Lana reminded Vi while giving her most honest opinion, “You know that money can’t give you happiness for everything in life.”

The two were just leaving the store when they bumped into two other girls.

“Oh!”

“Oomph.”

Being distracted by Vi, Lana had collided with a petite girl with honey brown hair and big brown eyes.

“Sorry.” Switching to Japanese, Lana immediately apologized for suddenly bumping into the girl, accidentally dropping her bags in the collision.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” The girl clapped her hands together and bowed her head down. “Please let me buy you a coffee or something!”

Lana shakes her head, feeling bad for making this girl owe her. “No, I couldn’t possibly. I’ll just be a bother if you do that for me.”

“I insist! It’s the least I could do! Besides Hana-chan and I were just about to get coffee after this!” Elbowing her friend, she stressed her words, “But I’m sure we could go get coffee right now!”

Lana suddenly felt guilty at the thought of refusing, not wanting to see the girl sad. “O-Okay.” She glanced over to Vi.  You don’t mind right, Vi?”

Internally amused at the small girl’s insistence that the four get coffee, Vi agreed. “I’m game if you are.” Turning to the two mystery girls, she continued, “By the way, as my friend here mentioned, I’m Vi. She’s Lana. And you two are?”

The aforementioned Hana nodded. “Yeah, I’m Hana and this is Kyoko,” she said, placing a hand on Kyoko’s head. “And I guess we’re getting coffee now.”

As the four started walking, Lana decided to ask Kyoko out of curiosity, “So do you two live here in Namimori or just happen to be passing by here for shopping?”

“We live here, plus today we just happened to have some time to go window shopping.” Kyoko replied happily, before realizing what Lana mentioned. “Now that I think about it, are you two new here in Namimori? I’ve never seen you two before.”

Vi and Lana looked at each other before Lana responded.

“Yes, we moved here recently and the both of us decided to explore the area to become familiar with the area.” Lana explained making sure she didn’t slip up her own words, “Unfortunately we got a little too side-tracked with shopping right now.” Lana raised her right hand holding the two shopping bags.

Vi held up her own four bags. “I found a lot of stuff that I like. The stores here are really nice. Do you two like shopping here or do you go somewhere else?” She asked the other two girls.

Hana seemed to think for a second before responding. “Well, we have school uniforms so we don’t really go shopping that much. But if I had to say, I really like that one store we were just in.” She gestured at Kyoko. “Kyoko doesn’t usually get anything from there.” Hana leaned in and mock whispered. “She likes girly clothes, like pastels and frills.”

Kyoko gasped and lightly hit her friend on the arm. “Hana-chan! So mean!” She pouted cutely. “You said I look good in those colors!”

Vi muffled a laugh with her hand. “Oh my god, you’re just like Lana. Her closet is completely pink.”

Lana blushed in embarrassment, “Vi!” Sending a glare at her friend instead of aiming a light hit at Vi, because she knew Vi would dodge it. “It’s not all pink! I have some other colors too!”

“Sure, I think there’s some peach in there.” Vi immediately retorted. “Basically pink. Light blues and greens. But just so much pink. I could go blind.”

Lana puffed her cheeks and huffed, “It’s not that bright. You make it sound like I’m a walking highlighter and pink highlighters aren’t even a pastel color!”

Kyoko giggled at seeing the two girls playfully argue about Lana’s closet. “You two get along so well!”

After sending one last huff at Vi, Lana turned to answer Kyoko. “We met in the same primary school together back in America and ended up sticking together like glue until the end of elementary school.”

“You’re both from America? Then are you two planning to transfer to a middle school here in Namimori?” Hana jokingly added on, “It’d be funny if you two end up transferring to our middle school. Our class lately has been getting some transfers, but only one of them stayed.”

“Yep! It would be great if you came to our school. Oh! We’re here already!” Kyoko held open the door to a quaint little coffee shop. “They’re kind of small but in my opinion, they have the best coffee in this district! Plus they have the cutest little cakes!”

Perking up at the mention of cake, Lana quickly walked over to the cake display with a gleam in her eyes. The first row had fruit tarts or jelly, second were small cakes decorated with animal-like edible decorations, and the last ones were whole cakes that Lana stared for the longest especially at the tiramisu.

Lana stared hard at all of them, until she noticed a dessert of fruits within small jelly bombs within club soda. She remembered how she hasn’t had one of those types of desserts in long time, and was debating between it and the strawberry shortcake with a chocolate rabbit on it.

Vi looked amused at Lana’s excitement at the cute cakes. “Chill out bruh, you’re drooling a little. Not that I don’t get it. These desserts are beautiful. Kinda just want a chocolate croissant, kind of want to eat an entire black forest cake.”

Hana raised an eyebrow at the two girls, then gestured over at Lana. “Yeah, that was basically my reaction the first time Kyoko brought me here. Who knows how, but she has a great eye for desserts. If you asked her, she could probably give you a list of the best bakeries and dessert shops in a ten mile radius.” Shaking her head, she corrected herself. “Scratch that, she’d probably take you there herself.”

“Really!” A burning flare ignited in Lana’s eyes as she turned over to Kyoko, “Let’s exchange numbers and go cake shopping when we’re free, Kyoko-san!”

Kyoko nodded in agreement, “Sure, but you don’t need to refer to me like that after all we’re now cake eating buddies!”

“Then is Kyoko fine? Sorry I’m more used to saying first names without honorifics better since I’m comfortable in speaking English than Japanese.” Lana asked Kyoko, hoping she wouldn’t mind.

“That’s fine, and I’ll refer you as Lana-chan from now on!” She proceeded to discuss with Lana if the fruits jelly is better than the strawberry shortcake.

“It appears my best friend has found a new best friend.” Vi sighed. “So Hana-san, since I’m guessing you’ve been here before, do you have any recommendations?”

Hana looked surprised at the honorific. “Um, yeah. But could you not call me Hana-san? It feels a little weird since no one ever calls me that. You could just call me Hana, or Hana-chan like Kyoko does.” She shrugged lightly.

Vi eyed the other girl for a couple seconds. “Hana then, since you seem more comfortable with that. You can just call me Vi. So, I’m deciding between the matcha latte and the caffè mocha.”

“Oh, I really love the matcha latte!” Hana exclaimed in surprise. “Kyoko always says it tastes too bitter for her, but I think she’s just too used to her sugary drinks.”

“Same,” Vi nodded in understanding. “Lana always puts more sugar in her coffee than I do.”

“That’s because I can’t handle the bitter taste.” Lana made a look of distaste remembering the last time she tried black coffee on accident. “I still don’t understand how other people can drink one cup full of it.”

“Watch me drink a whole thermos of black coffee without breaking eye contact.” Vi shot back immediately.

Kyoko came over to the trio. “Are you guys ready to order already? I don’t know what cake I want today!” She peered into the display. “They all look delicious as always!”

Hana sighed. “You say that every time and get the same thing every time. A strawberry shortcake, a slice of tiramisu, and a strawberries and creme frappe.”

“But Hana-chan! Today is a day for trying out new things, since we met new friends!” Kyoko tsked at her friend. “We should get something different!”

“Then let’s try the fruit jelly bombs in club soda!” Lana suggested, “I haven’t tried those in a long time.”

Vi looked for the mentioned dessert in the display. “Oh sure, those are cute!”

Hana nodded in agreement. “I’m down, they look tasty. As long as I get my latte.”

“Okay!” Kyoko perked up. “You three go find a table while I order and pay. What drinks did you two want, Vi-chan and Lana-chan?”

Vi looked surprised at the honorifics for a second, before making a neutral expression. “I’ll have an iced matcha latte. Thanks for paying, too.”

“Chocolate Frappe for me, and thank you for doing this Kyoko.” Lana thanked Kyoko, although in her mind she kind of felt guilty for letting Kyoko pay just because she bumped into her.

“Okay and it’s no problem at all!” Kyoko smiled and headed over to the register.

“So how are you guys dealing with Japan now?” Hana decided to continue off from the conversation from earlier after they found a table.

“We’re still kind of jet lagged from our flight yesterday, despite the time difference and the long flight, our caretaker conveniently managed to put away all of our belongings in our room before we arrived.” Lana explained.

Hana’s eyes widened in surprise, “You two just arrived yesterday?”

Vi nodded in confirmation. “Yep, our caretaker suggested that we go out and check out the town before we have to go to school tomorrow. Do you remember the name of the school we’re going to, Lana?”

“Yeah, it’s Namimori Middle School.” Lana recalled Tsunomichi’s words from earlier, “Tomorrow we’ll be enrolled in classes over there.”

Overhearing what Lana said, Kyoko came up to their table with a gasp. “Oh my gosh, really? You two are going to be going to our school!”

Vi opened her mouth in surprise. “Oh wow! Really? What are the odds?”

“Maybe fate is at work doing this, I mean it’s not everyday you meet friends before transferring.” Lana gave a friendly smile, but knew in the back of her mind that Checkerface might have pulled a few strings to do this.

Vi coughed under her breath. “Gay.”

“Not.” Lana poked Vi in the stomach to counter.

“Oof. You’re the one bringing up fate.” Vi huffed under her breath.

“Lana, that sounds so romantic in the way you word it!” Kyoko grabbed Lana’s hands with starry eyes.

Hana sighed heavily. “Miss shoujo manga over here loves talking about ooey gooey romantic stuff.”

“Hana-chan, that's mean!” Kyoko released her hold on Lana’s hands to pout at Hana.

Hana scoffed while brushing some of her hair away, “I only speak the truth.”

A waitress interrupted their conversation with a tray. “Hello misses, I have your drinks and dessert.”

“Thank you.” Lana immediately thanked the waitress for bringing the drinks over.

The waitress placed their drinks on the table and set the fruit jelly in the center. “Enjoy your dessert, ladies.” She bowed slightly and walked away.

Vi looked at the drink in front of her. “Who had the latte again? Hana?”

Hana raised her hand. “Kyoko, I got your strawberry and creme frappe here.” She handed it to the other girl.

Lana moved the cup over the right owner, “I think I got your matcha latte, Vi.”

“Then this must be your chocolate frappe, Lana!” Kyoko handed the last drink over to Lana.

“Thanks.” Lana brought the cup to her lips, but her eyes widened in surprise. “Wow, this is a nice blend.”

Vi sipped at her drink through the straw. “Yum, this tastes really good.”

“I’m glad to hear you two like it!” Kyoko grinned. “Now let’s try these fruit jellies. I haven’t tried them before but they look really yummy.”

Each of the girls picked up a spoon and scooped up a jelly.

“Mmm!” Hana put a hand on her cheek. “It’s so good!”

“The club soda really gives a nice sharp flavor to the sweetness of the fruit jellies.” Lana admired the jewel-like shape the jelly were in before taking another bite.

Vi chewed the jelly thoughtfully. “Kinda tastes like QQ jelly. But more fruity. Pretty good.”

Kyoko nodded in agreement with everyone. “I like it! We should get more if we finish this one!”

Hana tapped her spoon against the cup. “This is pretty small, I bet I could finish it by myself.”

“Hm, it’s a bit sad that it’s a small amount but I guess quality goes over quantity in the case of fruit jellies.” Lana admitted before taking another spoonful of jellies.

Vi had a thoughtful look on her face and stood up. “I’m going to go to the bathroom for a sec.”

“By the way Lana-chan, do you read shoujo mangas?” Kyoko brought up the same topic Hana was making fun of her for.

Lana shook her head, “No.”

“Oh boy.” Hana muttered to herself as she watched Kyoko get a twinkle in her eye.

“Not really.” Lana took a sip of her drink before continuing, “I didn’t have much time to read them back at home. I mostly got recommendations for thriller or mystery filled stories.”

“Then are you interested in reading some?” Kyoko offered as she took out her cell phone to pull up the titles, “I can recommend you this really good one, it’s called—”

“Not that one, Kyoko.” Hana groaned in memory of the trouble she went through in reading it.

“But it’s so good! Why not?!” Kyoko huffed at her friend.

“Not when the protagonist is too indecisive in choosing which is the right guy. Especially when we obviously know that she’s gonna end up with the first one she meets.” Hana pointed out to Kyoko to support her side.

“Indecisive? What exactly is the plot of this interesting story?” Lana interjected, wondering how interesting this so-called story was.

“Well the story is centralized on a girl determined to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend, who’s a rising singer.” Kyoko explained in thorough detail.

However Hana wore a look of confusion, “Wait which one was that? I thought you meant the one involving the girl who disguised herself as a boy to meet her favorite high-jump competitor in an all-boys school.”

“Hahaha.” Unable to control herself, Lana’s soft laughter soon gained the attention of two girls after watching their conversation. “You two seem really invested in them. I’ll consider reading both of those stories sometime later on.”

The three went one and on about which mangas seemed to be good recommendations, until Vi returned.

With a slightly guilty look on her face, Vi walked back to the table with a box. “So. Um. I bought a whole cake.”

When Lana glanced over to see the cake, she choked upon the sight of it. Quickly she sent a glare to Vi, “Why?!”

“You are at least 40% of my impulse control.” Vi took her seat, placing the box in the middle of the table.

“Wow, brutal honesty.” Hana laughed. “So what kind of cake did you get?”

“Strawberry deluxe. It’s pink and has pudding in it.” Turning to the other two girls, Vi opened up the box, “Also, this is too much for Lana and me, so I’m gonna give you guys half, okay?”

Kyoko put her hand over her mouth in surprise. “Oh my gosh, really?!”

Lana gave Vi a look. “Again, why?!”

Vi shrugged. “I wanted cake and Hana mentioned that Kyoko likes strawberry something? I liked the look of the deluxe. Also as thanks for the coffee.”

Sighing in exasperation, Lana made a noise of confusion. “Coffee! Is not? The equivalent! Of cake?!”

A peep noise came from Kyoko’s direction and Lana and Vi turned their heads to look at the girl. Kyoko had her hands over her mouth and she looked as if she might cry.

Panicking, Vi turned to Hana, who looked amused at her friend.

Hana smirked. “She’s fine. She just really likes cake.”

Sniffling, Kyoko stood up and went over to Vi’s side with her arms spread out. “I need to hug you now if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, it’s great, I love hugs!” Vi got up and was immediately embraced by the smaller girl. “Oh my god, you’re strong.”

Kyoko mumbled into Vi’s shoulder, “You’re my new best friend. We have to exchange phone numbers.”

Hana made a noise of protest. “I thought I was your best friend.”

“I thought I was her new best friend,” Lana brought up jokingly.

Finally letting go of Vi, Kyoko amended her statement. “Vi is my new new best friend. She got me cake.”

“I got everyone cake. Everyone’s my new best friend.” Vi grinned, taking out her phone. “Except Lana. She’s the old best friend. But not _old_ old. Young old?”

“Wow, you make me sound a bit too old with the way you worded that.” Lana narrowed her gaze at Vi, while giving a small smile toward Kyoko and Hana to share her number.

Hana held out her cell phone. “This seems like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

“Absolutely!” Kyoko entered her number into Lana’s phone. “Do you like calling or texting more? I like texting!”

Taking Vi’s phone, Hana laughed. “Her texts are filled with kaomojis, it’s adorable. I’m a texter, too”

“I prefer texting over calling, unless someone is lost then I’ll call for example whenever Vi moves ahead in a swarm of people in a department store during a sale. I lost her immediately.”  Lana mentioned as she entered her number into Hana’s cell phone.

“Wow bud, thanks for bringing that up.” Vi sniffed in fake offense. “If all of us like texting, then let’s make a group text or something,” she continued while handing Kyoko’s phone back to her.

“Sounds like a plan!” Kyoko played on her phone for a couple seconds, sticking her tongue out a little in concentration. “There!”

Three different ring tones sounded. A bell dinged from Hana’s phone. The sound of a harp chord chimed from Lana’s phone. A cat’s meow came from Vi’s phone.

On the screen of each of their phones, was Kyoko’s message.

5:12 PM Kyoko: ( ⸝⸝•ᴗ•⸝⸝ )੭⁾⁾ Hi!

5:12 PM Hana: why

5:12 PM Lana: xD

5: 13 PM Vi: :3c nyello

“Well! This has been a very exciting day.” Hana interrupted their texting. “But it’s getting late and we should probably be heading home soon.”

“Oh, do we have to?” Kyoko looked up at Hana with a pleading face.

“Yes, Kyoko, if you don’t get home by 5:30, your brother will tear the town apart.” Hana rolled her eyes. “Besides,” she turned to Lana and Vi, “You two are coming to our school tomorrow!”

Smiling, Vi nodded. “Yep, I’m looking really forward to it!”

“It’s nice meeting you two!” Lana gave a small wave to the two.

Once they see Hana and Kyoko walk out of hearing distance, Vi and Lana relaxed a little.

“Jesus I can’t believe I’m going to carry a cake home.” Vi shook her head at herself. “Nah, it’s good, I made the decision to buy a cake and I will stick with it.”

“So why in the world did you decide to do it?” Lana asked Vi and constantly made an emphasis toward the size of the cake, “How in the world are we gonna finish this?”

With an indignant expression, Vi retorted, “Listen. It was there and it was beautiful and it called to me. Plus, it’s not like we have to finish it immediately!”

Lana groaned as she silently face palmed herself, “I hope your cake doesn't attract animals.”

“I just got up to use the bathroom and I bought a cake. You are at least 40% of my impulse control, remember?” Vi reminded the other girl. “Possibly more.”

Taking a detour on the way home, they spotted a supermarket and decided to re-stock up their kitchen even though it was barely used.

Entering the store, Lana grabbed a cart and looked at Vi. “What’s the plan?”

“This would go a lot quicker if we split up,” Vi pointed out, grabbing a second cart. “I know what you like and dislike and vice versa.”

Lana pondered the suggestion for a second. “Alright, what do you want to get?”

Looking around the store, Vi mentally drew out a layout. “Well, hm. You can get produce and the bakery-slash-deli. Drinks? Maybe some candy, too.” Vi thought for a moment before continuing. “So that leaves meat, dairy, and snacks for me. And pantry staples, I guess.”

“Okay, any specific requests before we set out to our zones?” Lana asked.

“Not too much veg.” Vi made a face. “But lots of fruits is good. What kind of meat do you want?”

Lana pondered a bit while narrowing down to two categories of meat, “Maybe fish and the grill meats, but are you planning on getting anything from the frozen aisle?”

“Yeah sure, since I’m headed that way. What did you want?” Vi started making a checklist in her head.

Lana thought back on the vegetables she saw in the refrigerator and added onto the list. “Frozen vegetables, in case the vegetables in the fridge spoil later on.”

“Alright, did you want anything for the pantry?” Vi asked. “Snacks? Other?”

“Snack-wise we’re fine, unless you want more snacks, but we may need some soup and broth cans. Either one or the other, whatever works best.” Lana suggested, recalling how many of their favorite snacks were well stocked in the pantry.

“Alright, see you at the end!” Vi hopped onto her cart and rolled off to the meat section.

Shifting the cart the girl made her way over to the produce section, Lana first checked the tomatoes to replace the ones used earlier for sandwiches, “Even if Vi hates them, it’s still good for us.”

Glancing around for any other vegetables on sale, she grabbed a few more plastic bags, “Then let’s get those mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli too since they go well with stir-fry. It’s a good thing there’s already some cabbage in the refrigerator.”

Lana pondered back on what other vegetables were in the fridge combined with the ones she had in her cart. Soon a worker arrived to restock the vegetables, the person brought out a few sets of cauliflower and bean sprouts which were not on sale but were at a good pricing.

“The cauliflower and bean sprouts also for later.” Heading over swiftly, Lana grabbed a few more of the vegetables and wrapped each in plastic bags to place into the cart. She proceeded to head over to the fruits aisle.

“Strawberries?” Lana would get them if only they were in season, but looking at the prices and seeing which fruits were on sale, she decided to buy something else. “Since the persimmons are on sale, that means it’s autumn here…hm, maybe some pears too although persimmons are better crunchy than soft.”

“But which one is better?” In the midst of her thoughts, Lana suddenly heard a small voice from behind her.

“I recommend the crunchy persimmons.” A boy bearing short brown hair and eyes to match while wearing a green long sleeved sweater and pants. He was holding a plastic bag of persimmons in one hand while smiling at Lana.

“Ah, that’s an interesting point but why do you recommend the crunchy ones over the soft ones?” Lana asked the young boy out of curiosity, after all persimmons wasn’t a common fruit she would buy often.

“The soft ones are really good in desserts, but personally speaking the crunchy persimmons are better eating individually.” The boy pointed out to support his claim.

“Is that so? Thank—” As Lana was going to thank the boy, she realized she didn’t know his name.

Giving a bright smile, the boy introduced himself formally. “My name is Fuuta.”

“Nice to meet you too Fuuta, but shouldn’t you be with your mother?” Lana did notice how the boy wasn’t standing near any parental figure and wondered if Fuuta was lost.

“I’m actually going over to her now, because I got the persimmons for her. My other friend and I are helping mama out in finding ingredients. We’re taking these fruit for our friend in the hospital.” Fuuta explained, making Lana feel a bit sentimental in hearing what he said.  

“Oh, that’s kind of you to do that, but remember don’t stray too far from your mother okay?” Lana made sure to remind the boy to never stray too far from his parent. It’s bad to see a child getting lost in a crowded area, who knows what would’ve happened to him if she didn’t see Fuuta.

“Okay!” Before Fuuta left the produce section, he turned around to wave to the girl, “Bye bye!”

Lana, in return, did the same as Fuuta before resuming her focus in picking delicious ripe fruits. Once she finished taking a pound each of pears and persimmons, Lana walked over to the bakery section wondering what baked goods she could get.

“There’s the milk bread, a certain person definitely would eat all of it before I even get to do so.” Lana could already imagine the culprit stealing the milk bread from the kitchen, “Red bean paste bread…cream puff bread…curry bread…Vi might like the red bean paste taiyaki.”

Out of nowhere, Vi rolled by with her cart. “I’d like curry bread and custard taiyaki,” the girl requested, before rolling off again.

Jumping at Vi’s sudden appearance, Lana sighed and made her decision, “Might as well get the curry bread along with a loaf of white bread since we practically used up the last one for the sandwiches.”

Thinking that she bought enough, Lana was going to head over to the cashier only to meet with the smell of fried karaage. Halting in her steps, Lana slowly glanced over to find boxes of freshly cooked karaage. However…there was one problem. It looked like this supermarket had those half price hour sales, and karaage is gonna be on sale in three…two…one…

Dashing like a crazy madwoman, Lana dove right into the emerging crowd of home-stay mothers and tired persons that recently came out of work. She wasn’t going to lose to these women, Lana would get her karaage and celebrate her success with vegetable stir-fry.

A glint shone in the corner of her eye, Lana went after the first one she spotted immediately only to have a businesswoman’s hand grab the box at the same time. Upon raising her head, Lana could see the woman glare directly at her. There’s no way she’s gonna lose to this woman, Lana thought, tightening her grip over the box. When the woman did the same, the two continued to hold their grounds until the box of karaage started to have nail markings over it.

The woman attempted to shove the box out of Lana’s hands, but unfortunately for the businesswoman doing that act was the wrong choice. Especially for someone as determined as Lana. Instead of Lana’s hands being forced off, it was the businesswoman’s.

Lana muttered silently while giving off a scowl toward the woman, “There’s no way I’m losing this karaage.”

“Is that girl really a middle schooler?” was all the businesswoman uttered the minute Lana returned to her cart.

As she was heading out of the baked goods and went straight for the drinks section , her arm brushed against a guy’s arm without her realizing it. Causing the guy to drop the drinks he was holding in his arms.

“Oh man.” Lana paled upon what she saw and immediately apologized for her abrupt action. “I’m so sorry!”

“Nah it’s fine.” The guy had dark short brown hair, but his eyes were hidden by the red hoodie he wore and kept his head down to stare at the drinks that fell from his arms to the ground by his tennis shoes. He also had a chained necklace going around his neck in addition to his outfit that seemed out of place. The guy didn’t seem like the emo type in Lana’s eyes with the way he waved off her apology. “At least they’re not soda cans or something.”

“Oh okay.”  Feeling a bit guilty, Lana offered willingly. “Let me help you gather them!”

Surprised by her offer, the guy then said. “You don’t need to do that.”

“Don’t worry! I can help!” Pumped with determination, Lana quickly gathered the items that were scattered on the floor around them. Handing each and everyone of the drinks to the guy’s arms while making sure none of them were dented.

“That’s all of them.” Lana mumbled while making sure she didn’t miss a single bottle. Amused by the girl’s determination, the guy decided to place a drink next to the girl’s cheek. Causing her to yelp upon sudden contact with the cold drink. “What was that?!”

“A reward for the girl who managed to get all of my drinks back.” It was a bottle of strawberry Calpico, one of Vi’s favorite drinks. “I don’t need this one, since my friend prefers plum tea juice over it.”

“Oh, but you don’t need to do this.” Lana wanted to push the calpico back into the guy’s arms, but remembered that it was her fault in making him drop the drinks in the first place. So she relented from pushing them back, and ended up taking the calpico into her hands. “Actually, I’ll accept your calpico anyway.” Otherwise she’ll end up dropping his drinks again, and repeat what just occurred a few seconds ago.

“Glad to see we’re on the same page.” Giving a small grin, the guy gave a small wave of a goodbye to Lana. “See ya.”

“You too.” Lana did have to admit, the guy was indeed a nice person which was rare to find among a sea of men that just had horrible attitudes minus her brother and father. “Ah, I should get the other drinks too as well as the candy now before I forget!”

Lana hustled her way down the aisle to find the other drinks that they needed, but as the girl busied herself in getting the right drinks the guy that supposedly said bye to Lana a few minutes ago continued to watch her from the end of the aisle.

“So she’s one of them.” He muttered to himself as the grip he held on the drinks tightened within his arms. Once Lana had gotten the drinks and disappeared into another aisle for candy, the guy sighed before heading for the register to meet up with his friend. Now back over to Lana, she placed two bags of glico’s chocolate pejoy into her. Lana gave a satisfied nod, “That should be it.”

Pleased with her victory from getting karaage from the baked goods section, Lana headed towards the register with her haul.

Vi made her way to the meat section. “Meat. Ahh so good.” She drooled a little at the thought of barbeque. Lana would probably make her eat vegetables, but Vi didn’t mind eating vegetables as long as they weren’t raw. “Yum yum. Brisket with a side of cabbage stir-fry.”

She carefully selected two packages of sliced beef brisket and one of pork belly for grilling. A package of chicken breasts and a tilapia fillet also went into the cart. Then she headed to the counter and asked for a half pound of shrimp from the man behind the counter. As an afterthought, she also grabbed a box of salmon sashimi.

After the meat was the dairy section. Recalling a carton of lactose free milk in the fridge, Vi didn’t grab any more cartons. She wondered if there were eggs in the fridge at home, but since she didn’t look in the fridge, she wasn’t sure. She decided against getting them for now. Recalling seeing an ice cream machine on the counter, Vi contemplated getting heavy cream to make a batch, but figured it wouldn’t be good since the weather seemed to be getting colder.

Spotting the flavored milk boxes on sale, Vi gasped. “Aw yes, the gold mine.”

She was about to grab a pack of strawberry milk boxes when she was hip checked out of the way.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Vi’s metaphorical feathers were ruffled. She put her hands on her hips and stared down the guy who bumped her.

The boy had long-ish black hair pulled up in a short ponytail and fake nerd glasses, Vi noted by the lack of lenses in the frame. He was wearing a worn dark blue t-shirt and tight pants. Really tight pants. A sparkle on the right side of his face caught Vi’s attention. An earring, probably. Vi would give him a 6/10. The pants were too much and the fake glasses were just sad. Nice face though. But a nice face doesn’t give you an excuse to push people out of the way of strawberry milk.

“Excuse you, did you notice me here?” Vi glared at the boy, who looked amused by her anger.

Putting his hands up in defense, the guy grinned placatingly. “Sorry little lady, but I actually didn’t notice you, if you could believe that.”

“Wow. I don’t believe that for a second.” Vi raised an eyebrow skeptically.

Huffing out a laugh at Vi’s straightforwardness, the boy continued. “Well, you see, I was in a rush to get my friend his milk boxes, since he’s always complaining about his height, even though I think he’s perfect the way he is, but he always whines about our height difference. Anyways, he drinks milk 24/7 but he doesn’t like the taste of white milk, so I always have to get him the flavored milk, like this week he got a craving for strawberry milk, even though the past two months he’s only been drinking banana milk. So I was in a rush to get him his strawberry milk when I accidentally ran into you. Sorry?” He finished his rant with an apologetic smile.

Vi blinked once, twice. “Okay. Firstly, I can’t believe I understood that. Second, I suppose you’re off the hook for bumping me. Third, how does this guy feel about melon milk?”

The boy grinned widely at her response. “He thinks it’s too green.” Picking up a pack of a dozen strawberry milk boxes, he handed it to Vi. “Here you are, little lady. Your milk boxes as a formal apology.”

“Thanks.” Vi took the milk and placed them in her cart. “You better get your milk to your boy before he shrinks or something.”

The boy laughed loudly. “Oh my god, he would be so mad if he actually got shorter. Thanks for the laugh, little lady. Later.” He waved and walked off. As he left the aisle, he murmured under his breath, “How amusing. This’ll be fun.”

Thrown off by the guy with the milk, Vi took a second to remember what else she was getting in the aisle. “Pudding!” She quickly grabbed a packet of three and placed them in the cart.

Taking a short detour through the bakery and scaring the bejeezus out of Lana, Vi rolled quickly past the aisles. As Vi passed the non perishable aisle, she recalled the pantry in the kitchen. Plenty of snacks, but nothing wrong with getting more snacks.

Spotting the shelfs of rice crackers that she liked, Vi pushed her cart over.

“Wao, they have a much better selection than the ones in Taipei,” she mused out loud.

“Eh?” A small girl’s voice exclaimed behind her. “ _Do you speak Chinese?_ ”

Turning around, Vi saw a little girl with a braid wearing a cheongsam. “ _Yes, I do! It is nice to meet you!_ ”

The girl held out her hand in greeting. “ _My name is I-Pin! I like the seaweed rice crackers! Can you get them for me? I can’t reach them._ ”

Vi grabbed the bag of snacks that I-Pin pointed to. “ _Of course I can. But where is your parent?_ ” She didn’t notice an adult with the little girl and was worried for her.

“ _Mama asked me to get snacks for my friend who’s in the hospital._ ” I-Pin explained. “ _He likes grape candy more than rice crackers, but I will change his mind. Thank you for getting these for me, big sis!”_

“ _Oh! No problem, little sis._ ” Vi smiled at I-Pin. “ _Be careful getting back to your mother now!_ ” She watched the little girl run off. “Adorable.”

Grabbing a back of her own rice crackers and senbei, Vi was prepared to leave the aisle until she saw the boxes of teas and coffees. “Oh sweet heaven.” She grabbed a box of green, black, and barley teas, stacking them in the cart. Reaching the herbal teas, she grabbed a box of jasmine, chamomile, hibiscus, and earl grey, adding them to the cart.

“Alright, I think that’s enough to last us months of tea time. Now time for coffee.” Vi vaguely wondered if her middle school self had the mild caffeine addiction she developed studying for college exams. “Well, there’s no time like the present to develop a lifelong addiction!” Looking at the instant coffees, she made a face, trying to remember if there was a coffee bean grinder in the kitchen. Nothing tastes better than freshly ground coffee. Picking up a french vanilla creamer that she remembered Lana using and a hazelnut flavor that she quite enjoyed, she tossed them into the cart.

Spotting the soup cans, Vi quickly selected a chicken noodle soup, a clam chowder, and a tomato soup. She also grabbed several packets of her favorite corn potage. “Yum, tastes good with egg drop.”

Heading to the frozen aisle, she grabbed a bag of assorted frozen vegetables. Examining the goods, Vi also grabbed a frozen pizza and a bag of chashu buns.

Looking into her cart, she figured she was done and headed for the check out.

As the duo paid for their goods, they all earned some strange looks from the other customers who had never seen them before. Although it could have also been because they were two middle schoolers with terrifying amounts of food in their carts.

They left the store loaded with an entire day’s worth of bought goods. Vi managed to “borrow” a cart from the supermarket so they wouldn’t have to lug them all the way back home, although Lana made her promise to take it back as soon as possible. They attracted a lot of attention, being children pushing a cart with an assortment of grocery bags and clothing store bags.

At last they reached home and were all excited to add their purchases to the house. Vi reached the front door first and opened the door while Lana unpacked their items from the cart. They entered the house together when they spotted a strange shadow in the darkness of their living room.

“!!!”


	4. The Moment It Clicked

“Wah!” Lana screeched in complete astonishment of the sudden appearance of the figure. Grabbing the closest item she could reach, Lana dropped her items on the floor and took hold of the taser her dear big brother gifted her not too long ago that had been sitting inside her bag. Lana silently thanked her brother for gifting her a pink hello kitty taser. Placing a thumb against the switch, Lana’s taser flickered sparks of electricity dangerously on the adorable yet vicious item.

Regretting not bringing her knife out with her, Vi adjusted her keys in her palm and slapped her other hand against the wall, hitting the light switch and lighting up the room, revealing the figure sitting on the living room table sipping at an espresso.

“Who are you?” Vi yelled as the figure was illuminated.

The figure lifted his head and tipped his hat so the duo could see his face. “Those were nice reflexes, but clearly not the reactions of civilians. Who I am isn’t important. What I want to know is who you two are. Your conversation was very unusual as well as your actions just now. So that brings me to my point, who are you and why are you here?”

Upon sighting the talking baby in a suit, the duo froze.

Lana mumbled toward Vi, “I-isn’t that…?”

“Reborn?” Vi whispered back, otherwise frozen in shock.

Terror enveloped Lana’s eyes as she lowered the taser a bit, “What?!”

Vi suddenly swung her arm, hitting Lana in the side. “Dude! Do you know what this means?! I can’t believe it! Holy shit! Oh my god!” Vi hissed, knocking Lana after every sentence.

“Could…ow…you…ow…stop?!” Unfortunately for Lana, Vi didn’t relent her aim, “Ouch! Gah! P-pain…so much pain. AGH!”

Reborn smirked, “Ah, so you have heard of me.”

“Shit, he heard us!” Vi clapped the hand that wasn’t still tightly gripping the keys over her mouth.

“Paaaain.” Lana whined, still hissing in pain from Vi’s panicking hits and holding the taser tighter than usual. Once the pain subsided, Lana focused her direction over to the talking baby in a suit, “Maybe.” Muttering the last bit in her mind. _‘Just didn’t think you were real._ ’

“Since you have heard of me, that just makes it easier. Now,” Reborn pointed his gun towards the duo, “Tell me who you two are and your connection with the mafia.” He paused, looking at Lana and making eye contact. “Lana Vega.”

Lana flinched when hearing her full name. Unsure of whether to raise the taser, she glanced up to stare at the baby hitman directing his gaze to her, “How does he know my name?”

Vi dropped her jaw. “What devil’s witchcraft is this? I knew he was good, but not this good.”

The tiny figure atop the table smirked, “I have my ways. Now tell me.”

Lana scrambled to come up with a quick explanation, but tried to make it as vague as possible. “Unfortunately, we’re not really allowed to talk about it. We’re under oath.”

“Omerta huh?” Reborn guessed from Lana’s words, “I already know that you two have de-aged somehow, and now I know that you're involved with the mafia. But you haven’t changed back into your older selves, so it can’t be the TYL bazooka. I only know of one person that can de-age people like this. Are you acting under his orders?”

The two looked at each other in confusion and worry, unsure if this somehow broke the rules that had been given to them, which would mean that they lost even before they started ‘playing’.

Vi spoke up, thinking up a vague answer. “Well, I wouldn't say that we’re acting under anyone’s orders. Freely at least. Voluntarily, of our own will etcetera. But hypothetically if we were following anyone’s orders, it would be the person who you’re accusing of de-aging us, if we even are de-aged like you seem to think.”

“In other words, this supposed person you’re accusing doesn’t coincide with our general situation.” Lana summed up without any emphasis on the person mentioned by Reborn.

As an afterthought, Vi added, “So now we know that you know and you know we know.”

Lana started to wonder what’s up with this inception-like theme going on. Shaking her thoughts off Lana attempted to explain their situation without using any words that’d violate their rules, “You see, what we’re trying to say is—”

“No, I understand…it is him then. Well, he must have some sort of plan, otherwise he wouldn't have sent you two here. Since you two are here, might as well help out. We’re having a show of strength, of sorts, between factions of our family at the moment. There will be a battle tonight with Gokudera, who you may or may not know of, but we should have it under control. Instead, you can come to the one tomorrow, so I'll be expecting you there in the case that something happens.”

Finishing his coffee, Reborn placed the cup down and strolled through the front door nonchalantly as they simply stared in confusion as to what just happened.

“…We should go place the groceries into the fridge.” Lana spoke, breaking the silence.

Vi stared at the open door. “What the hell just happened.”

“We just encountered a great discovery during our whole day of exploring.” Lana grimaced after pointing out what took place a few minutes ago, while turning off the taser to place back in her bag. “Just when I finally used the taser, the opportunity was lost.”

Putting a palm on her face, Vi sighed heavily. “I cannot deal with this right now. A baby pointed a gun at me. How am I supposed to deal with that? What are emotions. Who knows. Emotions are off.” Her face went blank as she grabbed several bags in each hand and lugged them into the house.

“Reborn didn’t even put the mug back into the kitchen.” Lana carefully closed the door, locking it behind her, “In fact, Vi would’ve loudly yelled about Reborn not locking the door and being rude.”

“Hey! Reborn didn’t close the door when he left, did he? How rude!” came a voice from the kitchen.

“There she goes.” Lana sighed upon cue on hearing Vi’s voice from the living room.

Heading over to the strangely empty kitchen, Lana checked the clock set on the microwave, noticing that it was dinner time, “Vi! Did you see a black bow clip in one of the bags? I kinda need it so that I can start making the stir-fry.”

Vi walked back into the kitchen holding a butcher knife. “Did I hear you say stir-fry?” On her head was the black bow clip.

“Why must you do this.” Taking the clip and pulling back her bangs, Lana clipped them in place with the bow clip, “Do you want to chop the vegetables?”

“Yes.” A glint in her eye, she headed to the sink to rinse off her knife.

“Just don’t hit your hand, and don’t aim at me either.” Lana turned over to the stove after warning Vi, “Could you hand me the wok?”

Opening cabinets at random, Vi eventually found the wok behind a large soup pot. “Here ya go, bud.”

Taking out a cutting board and setting her knife on it, Vi headed to their fridge and inspected the inside. “Fancy,” she whistled, impressed. “So what do you need me to chop, Head Chef Lana?”

“Mushrooms, cabbage, broccoli, and zucchini.” Lana replied while gathering the ingredients for the sauce base, “Oyster sauce, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Hey, Vi take the garlic too!”

Taking each item out as Lana listed them off, Vi miscalculated the amount of food and grabbed too much for them to finish that night for dinner.

Lana didn’t notice any of this as she was busy mixing the sauce base for the stir-fry. Taking a tasting plate from one of the drawers of the kitchen, she placed a small spoonful onto the plate to taste the flavor. “Hm, maybe it needs more lemon juice and salt.” Shaking a bit more salt and squeezing some more lemon juice, Lana retried the sauce again using the tasting plate. “Mm, now this is a flavorful dish!”

Vi concentrated on the vegetables as she prepared to play with her new shiny knife. After the vegetables were rinsed, she stuck her tongue out estimating how thinly they should be chopped. She had switched her butcher knife to a more suitable blade for vegetables. “Hmm, the knife seems a bit bigger than usual. Maybe just cause my hands are smaller, I guess.” She started to chop the vegetables, getting into a rhythm. Chopping and putting it in a bowl. Repetitively. She didn’t notice the sheer amount of food she had gone through until it was all gone.

Somewhat sheepishly, Vi yelled out, “Uhh, hey Lana! How much did we need?”

“One cabbage, six sliced mushrooms, one zucchini cut in fourths, and five broccolis chopped into small chunks.” Lana yelled back to the girl assisting her with the vegetables as she busied herself on heating the wok.

“Well. We’re going to eat stir-fry for days.” Vi deadpanned upon viewing how much she had chopped up.

Lana turned around at Vi’s words and was going to question her until she saw the amount of vegetables sitting on multiple plates beside the cutting board, “I can’t believe you.”

Banning Vi to a corner, Lana put the finishing touches on the stir-fry.

Sitting on the ground next to the fridge, Vi pouted, upset with herself for getting too much food, and asked Lana, “Do you need anything else?”

Lana tried to think of something Vi wouldn’t be able to mess up, “How about you set up plates for the karaage and sashimi in the fridge?”

Vi got up and raised a fist in the air, ready to prove herself. “I humbly accept this mission, Captain Lana!”

Shaking her head, Lana muttered in confusion of her newfound titles, “How did I get from head chef to captain?” Deciding the dish was done, she turned the stove off. “The stir-fry is ready!” Lana announced while placing the stir-fry on a serving platter. Though Lana silently realized that she was only cooking for two people and not her family. “Oh.” She could silently feel a well of sadness pool within her, but now wasn’t the time to be thinking about her brother and parents. Taking a deep breath, Lana simply reminded that she should focus on serving the food she just made for Vi and herself.

After taking out the karaage and sashimi, Vi took out a couple of plates and utensils for the two of them. She also removed the small packet of soy sauce from the sushi box and put it into two separate sauce dishes. She left the wasabi and ginger in the box, grabbing a small bit of each for herself.

They split the karaage and sashimi evenly among them and grabbed a large portion of the stir-fry in an attempt to make as much of a dent as possible so they could finish it faster.

Grabbing her food, Vi poured some soy sauce into a separate small plate with a bit of wasabi, mixed it up, then dipped a slice of sashimi into the sauce. “Mmmm, it burns so good.”

“Sashimi on its own tastes just as good.” Lana dipped some sashimi into the sauce premade by Vi to try some, “The wasabi and ginger are good to try once in awhile.”

As Lana was going to try the wasabi she turned to hear soft shuffling of steps in the hallway. Seeing Lana’s turned head, Vi also turned to see what she was looking at.

Tsunomichi slowly wandered into the kitchen, as if lured out by the smell of food.

“What are you an animal?” Vi snickered and went to the fridge in search of a drink. “Wao, so much calpis! Lana! You want a drink?”

“I want you to stop tormenting the man.” Lana rolled her eyes, despite having some anger welled up for Tsunomichi herself. “Grab me a water bottle.”

Handing Lana her drink, Vi looked at the overflowing amount of stir-fry on the counter. “Ya know, I don’t think we have enough food for you. This seems like a two person meal.”

Tsunomichi’s expression saddened at the thought of no food for him.

“Yes, if your portions are for some bear,” Lana deadpanned remembering the sight of the amount of vegetables Vi cut, “We made so much food already, so it shouldn’t hurt to share some with Tsunomichi.”

Vi sighed and relented, “I suppose some would say that starving an animal is inhumane.” She took a sip from her strawberry calpis.

Lana grabbed her plate and water, she told the girl. “Vi, go to the dining room.”

“Nah, I’ll go to the living room. Maybe watch some TV,” Vi left the kitchen, balancing her plate of food, the soy sauce plate, and her calpis.

“Put on food network if they have it!” Lana suggested after Vi left the kitchen.

“We might need subtitles though!” she yelled back from the living room.

Before leaving the kitchen, Lana washed the plates in the sink then placed them into the dishwasher. However as Lana was going to leave, she sent a blank look to Tsunomichi. In truth, Lana still felt irked about the first abrupt transportation along with the room incident. However Lana gestured to the food, offering their leftovers to the sad caretaker. Finally, Lana left the kitchen to see what Vi was doing in the living room not wanting to see the caretaker’s reaction toward the food left for him.

When they walked into the living room, they spotted a landline they did not notice before on a side table had a flashing light signifying a voice mail. The principal had called to confirm their enrollment to Namimori Middle starting tomorrow, since the uniforms should have arrived by tonight. They should arrive early to make preparations for their classes and familiarize themselves with the school.

“School starts at eight in the morning so I guess we have to leave around seven?” Lana took note of the times mentioned from the principal’s call.

“Seems about right,” Vi replied, already adding alarms on her phone. “6 A.M. disgusts me. I am not a morning person.”

“We have no choice Vi,” Lana drank some water to clear her throat before continuing. “We need to follow what’s been given to us otherwise we’re goners.”

Vi paused, hand midair holding a bite of stir-fry. “So like. Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room? Or I suppose in this case, the hitman in the room.”

“Do we really need to bring that up right now?” Lana cringed, remembering what occurred not too long ago. “I just can’t believe he’s real or rather this whole area in general is real.”

“I can’t believe we have flames!” Vi yelled, waving her right hand, showing off her rings in Lana’s face. “I have mist flames? I can’t believe!”

Lana slapped Vi’s hand away from her face, “Yeah, I know because I also have flames too.” She raised her right hand to show the two rings. “But please stop shoving your rings close to my face. My personal space bubble has been broken too many times today.”

“Hm, Lana,” Vi’s tone became more serious. “How are you taking this all? You haven’t seem freaked out very much.”

“Reborn said my name.” Lana spoke in a calm manner taking a sip of water while sending Vi a blank face, “Of course I’m freaking out.”

“Ah yes, I can tell from your tone and facial expression that you are absolutely traumatized.” Vi drawled sarcastically. “But seriously this is completely batshit wild. How are we in the KHR world?”

“More like, what do you last remember of KHR in the first place?” Lana inquired Vi out of curiosity.

Vi put a hand on her chin thoughtfully. “Well, Reborn said that there was a fight tonight. I think he said it was Gokudera’s? The only thing that I can think that matches that is the ring battles with the Varia right?” Snapping her fingers in realization, she grabbed another mouthful of stir-fry, shoving it in her mouth.

Lana capped her water bottle to add on, “So does that mean we’re in the Varia arc?”

“Oh no,” Vi suddenly cried out. “That means the bf is in prison! But the gf is gonna show up soon! Conflicting emotions!”

“Actually, Vi.” Lana frowned a bit, unsure of how to feel about what she was going to mention. “I don’t think I remember much of what happened in the Varia arc. I mean it’s been so long since we’ve read and watched the major story line of Katekyo Hitman Reborn.”

“Well like the Vongola wins at the end, so that’s not really much of a problem. I remember the gf wins her battle against an arcobaleno with the help of the bf.” Vi recalled, finishing her stir-fry. “And I think I remember the order the battles were in. Sun, lightning, storm, rain, mist, cloud, and finally sky.”

“I see.” Lana nodded as she listened to Vi’s memories of the arc, “All I recall was how they first met all of the members of the Varia and the protagonist finding out about his dad being an external adviser to the Vongola Family. The rest of the arc is where I draw a blank.”

Vi grinned cheekily. “I notice that you didn’t mentioned anything about your bf. Poor guy, how could you hurt. Oh. Hm. What was his name again?”

“Oh.” Lana blushed, causing her to glance elsewhere. She found it mildly embarrassing on recalling who she crushed on in KHR, but she could remember the name as clear as day. “It was—”

Suddenly the name she was going to say became blank, confused Lana tried to sound out the name. “Ah?” Puzzled by what she muttered, Lana told Vi. “Wait a sec, it’ll come back to me soon.”

Tilting her head, Lana hummed until the name returned to her mind abruptly. “Oh now I remember!” She clapped her hands in glee of remembering, but the way Lana worded it sounded a bit odd. “Tsu-na?”

Vi barked out a laugh. “Oh my god, Tsuna! The tuna fish, the no good boy-o. The flameo hot boy. The ultimate protagonist whose powers are friendship and fire hands. Catch **_those_ ** hands, why don’tcha.”

Lana felt like there was something odd with the memory of which fictional character she crushed on, but she was more weirded out by the names Vi listed out for Tsuna. “The flameo hot boy?” Lana sent a look at Vi, “Why?”

“Because I can’t believe you liked the main boy. How common can you get?” Vi raised her eyebrow. “He’s not even that interesting!”

Lana shrugged, “I prefer to be common most of the time.” Though Lana was pretty sure that there was something in the back of her mind, unfortunately she could not grasp onto whatever she was trying to recall.

“Well, you can’t get more common than the protagonist.” Vi mused, before thinking of something. “The only thing more cliché than being part of the protag harem is falling for the misunderstood ‘bad boy’. And I don’t think you’re Hibari’s type.” She snorted at the thought.

“Misunderstood bad boy type?” Lana scrunched her face at Vi, unable to understand what that meant. However she understood the latter part of her words, “Obviously not. He’s the type to terrify me.” Lana cringed at the thought of meeting Hibari for real. She imagined herself being chased to the death instead. “The last thing I want is to be hit by his tonfa.”

Vi choked on her drink. “You have not seen the fangirls on the internet. There are many, Many, MANY girls who want to be ‘hit by his tonfa,’” putting air quotes around the phrase, “If you know what I mean.”

“Oh yeah, didn’t you mention that several times when I started reading the series?” Lana recalled how Vi bugged her to start reading the series, and made complaints about the over intensified group of Hibari fan girls. In fact Lana still questioned as to how Hibari has such a large fanbase when his strength is a cliched trope constantly used in shows or comic book movies to make the guy seem more than what he seems.

“Yep.” Vi affirmed, popping the ‘p’ loudly. “Hibari is the copy paste anime boy, with the same black hairstyle as every other anime protag. And the whole ‘you are beneath me’ attitude and the silent, broody type. He’s the perfect badass bishie trope with a sprinkle of cute bird pet.”

“What a trope.” Lana admitted, slightly pitying Hibari’s existence, “I can’t believe he’s a reused trope for this type of series.”

“He’s recycled goods. The only question is…” Vi paused for dramatic emphasis. “Paper or plastic?”

“Oh my god, I can’t believe—” Lana paused for a moment to actually think about it and silently replied, “That’s literally a tough idea to chew on. You sure he’s not aluminum? I’m pretty sure you can recycle aluminum.”

Vi tapped her chin in consideration. “True, he could be. Pretty sure those tonfas are titanium or something though.”

“It makes you question as to how he carries it without anyone else but himself knowing. Like where in the world do those tonfas come from?” It’s forever a mystery as to how Hibari Kyoya managed to magically have his tonfas by his side while wearing his uniform jacket. “Anyway, what was that about you mentioning the misunderstood bad boy type? But more importantly if Hibari is the atypical anime boy protagonist trope then what about the other main characters?”

Vi cleared her throat in preparation. “Well. So protags. There’s Tuna, Goku, Yams, Cow, Punchy, Death, the bf, and the gf. Does Reborn count as a protag?”

“His name is on the cover of the manga.” Lana pointed out, supporting the idea that he is considered one. “Plus he’s the one helping, emphasis on the helping, Tsuna to become the Tenth generation boss.”

“True. Then Tuna is the main main protag, knight in shining armor, ‘I fight for my friends’, idiot.”

“Knight and shining armor?” With the way he screams, Lana is doubting the trope placed on Tsuna.

“Goku, squid boy, right hand man, always the bridesmaid, never the bride, ‘I only buy clothes from Hot Topic’, tsundere.”

“You make it sound like he’s some edgy teenager and a supportive fan girl in one person.” Lana paled on the idea of what Gokudera would think of how they their impression of him. He’d probably yell at them threatening to throw his bombs at them with Tsuna trying to stop him from doing so.

“Yams, the musclehead, nice guy, clueless idiot, samurai, ‘student athlete The Grind Never Stops’, daddy’s boy.”

“They never really explained much about Yamamoto’s mother, I think. They just made subtle comments about how Yamamoto brought friends over for the first time through his dad.” Lana recalled, actually wondering what in the world happened to his mother. Was it divorce? Was it death? Who knows.

“Cow, the innocent baby, time travel paradox, sugar high, sinnamon roll on Fire, actual toddler who should not be here?! Unless he shoots! Himself! With a cannon! What even?!”

“Then again he’s a child of the supposed Bovino Family, in which we never seen before except for their messages. Literally what kind of small mafia family sends a child out to kill the number one hitman? It’s obvious that they didn’t care for Lambo when they sent him to find Reborn, but it’s even more sad to think they’re willing to send letters but not show themselves before the child. Is being a member of the Vongola Family through Tsuna that important of a status to them?” Lana did always wondered why the Bovino Family never showed themselves even though they managed to create Lambo’s special Ten Years Later Bazooka.

“Punchy, the extreme-o, siscon, hit too much he probably has brain damage, no indoor voice, needs to put a shirt on, ‘I have anime hair colors aka no normal person colors’, extreme to the nth power.”

Lana was going to say something nice about Ryohei, but nothing came to mind. “I actually have no other comments for Ryohei except for agreeing with you.”

“Death, as mentioned before is the copy paste black haired anime bishie, bad boy with a heart of jerkface, adorable pet bird what even, one man army, ‘I'll kick anyone's ass. I'll kick your ass. I'll kick your dog's ass. I'll kick my own ass.’, OK maybe not that last one, serious sadistic tendencies.”

“Hibari sounds like a mess in one character.” She already voiced her opinion of his character earlier and it actually gave Lana a headache to recall of that.

“The bf, or the beef, anime hair again, like what even is that purple pineapple, reformed enemy is now a friend, ‘I have a membership to Hot Topic’, God Awful Childhood, pickle.”

“Well he’s definitely not the edgy type, but can’t blame Mukuro for the childhood he was given. It’s a shame that he had to be taken to prison during the events of the Kokuyo Arc.”

“The gf, the purest cinnamon roll, deserves nice things, also a pretty shit childhood, token female, twinsies with a dude, must be protected.”

“Gf? Who are you talking about?” Lana was wearing a look of confusion.

Vi paused in her monologue. “The gf! Oh my god, she’s real holy shit,” she muttered under her breath. “Oh my god, I’m going to woo her.”

Lana stared at Vi, still wearing a look of confusion. “What? Who are you referring to?”

“Wait, so you don’t remember Chrome?”  Vi looked concerned over Lana’s memories of the plot.

“I told you earlier.” Lana pointed out as she crossed her arms in anguish, “I only remembered the start of the Varia arc leading up to Iemitsu’s real identity. The rest of my memories are blank for some reason.”

Vi was a little worried about what the meaning behind Lana’s missing memories could be. “Huh. Well, maybe it’s just been a while since we read it, so your memories are fuzzy. I’m sure they’ll come back to you. I only remember parts of Varia arc, but not much after.”

“But normally I don’t draw blanks like this unless I didn’t study for some super important exam.” Lana was pretty sure her memories are still intact, but wondered why the ones regarding KHR are a tad hazy.

“Don’t worry about it, I guess. I bet going through the arc again will help you remember. Anyways, Reborn, the titular character, the over powered baby assassin, badass adorable, catchy catchphrase, chitty chitty bang bang, spartan home teacher.”

“I think your tropes for him are understandable. I just wonder why he’s such an overpowered character even though he’s mainly a tutor despite his appearance.” Lana was still a bit shaky from her first meeting with the said character. Especially hearing her own name from him.

Vi shrugged. “Plot bunnies. It’s a mystery. I’m supposing we’ll have to ‘play the game’ and go through either a certain number of arcs or hit the end before we can go...back home.”

“Have you ever wondered what’s the purpose of this game than just playing it?” Lana asked Vi to see her opinion.

“The whims of a sick and twisted maniac.” Vi deadpanned. “We’re puppets now. We have no free will, forced to participate in this fake reality until the overlord is satisfied with our performance.”

“Never thought that’d one day we’d be considered puppets, but I think the latter of your words is going a bit too far for someone like Checkerface.” There’s too much vague information surrounding him especially. Lana made a mental note to be sure to find some evidence about him.

“We don’t know anything about Checkerface, though. He abducted us! Sent us to this world! And knows the contents of my underwear drawer! My soul has been violated!” Vi shouted, suddenly seething at the thought of being manipulated to this extent. “What’s next? What could possibly be the purpose of this game besides for his entertainment? It’s not like we’re chosen one’s to fulfill a prophecy. For all we know, we could die! I don’t want to die in a preteen’s body!” She took a deep breath, calming down a bit after her short spiel.

Seeing Vi calm down from her outburst, Lana wasn’t sure if her theory was right but decided to bring it out on the spot.  “Do you think Checkerface is a part of the KHR world somehow? Like some part that wasn’t mentioned in the actual plot? Or someone that’s been watching and reading the story like us that somehow gained an immense amount of power to do things out of his own will?” The more Lana thought about the last suggestion, the more ridiculous she thought of saying it after hearing Vi’s next words.

“That’s it. We’re going to die at the hands of a psychopath.” Vi flopped back onto the sofa.

“We don’t know that yet Vi, if anything let’s just make sure we play by the rules accordingly.” Lana reminded her friend of the rules they’ve been set with for this game. It’s hard to believe they’d end up returning to the age of a middle school student and have to watch everything that happened in the KHR series all over again. Except all of the fighting is now considered real to them.

“So the plan is just we go to school like normal middle schoolers, don’t stick out too much, and gather information. And don’t die.” Vi moaned into a couch pillow. “What even are our lives anymore.”

“Yeah.” Lana agreed with Vi’s statement. “For now, until we can get our original forms and go home after all of this.”

Face still buried in a pillow, Vi continued her complaints. "We also have to participate in the whole Vongola versus Varia battle now. Not like participate participate, but Reborn practically said he wanted us there, so that means we have to go under penalty of Death."

“Let’s just be glad that we’re not actually facing the Varia and letting the characters handle it themselves.” Lana thanked the heavens for being able to luck out on this.

"I would die if I had to fight a swordsman. His hand is a sword! What the hell!" Vi whacked the pillow against the sofa. "What kind of person does that?! I feel bad for Yams tomorrow. I'm pretty sure his battle is tomorrow, right?"

“I think? I don’t recall exactly, but Reborn only mentioned that tonight was Gokudera’s battle. So I guess they haven’t confirmed the next battle yet.” Lana thought back on what Reborn mentioned to them earlier. Though it didn’t make complete sense to her as to why Reborn would mention about the battle for tonight. Was he expecting them to arrive tonight? She hoped not while stuffing the thought into the back of her mind.

"I am at least 80% positive that the Yams battle was after the Squid battle. The one with the water flooding came after the one with the fire booms." Vi made explosion sound effects. "Destroyed half of the school and bones in his body. Who even pays for property damage? Or hospital bills?"

“I think Dino has the hospital bills covered? I remember Dino being at the hospital for a bit when Tsuna went to go see Gokudera and Yamamoto at the hospital to see how they were doing.” Lana was pretty sure that was what happened before Tsuna’s father was revealed to be the boss of CEDEF.

"Of course. Of. Fucking. Course." Vi muttered. "Stupid pretty blond boy. Has to be perfect. Cares about children. God damn."

“It’s too bad the pretty blonde boy is a complete klutz without his subordinates.” Lana added on in both amusement and in memory of the chapter Dino was first introduced to Tsuna and the others in the daily arc. It was a nice twist to what seemed to be the pupil before Tsuna.

Vi covered her face with her hands and whined, her voice muffled. "It makes him quirky. Unfortunately, I find it adorable. I'm going to punch him in his cute button nose. I hope he falls down a flight of stairs today."

“I feel like I should pray for Dino’s safety all of a sudden.” Lana suddenly felt worried after Vi mentioned falling down the stairs. Let’s hope the tenth boss of the Chiavarone Family doesn’t actually fall down thanks to stairs.

About to add something else, Vi interrupted herself with a loud yawn. “Alright then, it’s pretty late already. We should probably go to bed soon to get up early for school.”

“You can go ahead, I’m gonna go wash the dishes.” Lana got up from her seat holding her empty water bottle on top of Vi’s abandoned empty plate.

“Hey no, I’ll take the dishes since you cooked after all.” Vi countered.

“Nah, it’s fine.” Lana reassured the other girl, taking her plate and heading towards the kitchen, “Besides I need to pack the leftovers for our lunch tomorrow.”

“Seriously, you don’t have to do all that.” Vi grabbed her plates and drink and followed Lana into the kitchen. “What’s the point of having two people if one does all the work?”

Lana took Vi’s plates and pushed her out of the kitchen, “Just go. It’s all fine, so go on ahead and get your beauty sleep.”

“Beauty sleep is for the weak. I am a natural beauty. This is the work of angel tears and heaven’s clouds.” Vi insisted as she was pushed out. “I don’t need sleep! I’m all mighty! I can last forever!”

“Last week, you messaged me with that one tweet about 24 hour sleep cycle with the caption ‘dis me’.” Lana reminded the girl of what took happened before they were transported.

Vi yelled back from the stairs. “I am a multifaceted enigma!”

Shaking her head, Lana was going to head to the sink until she remembered about another cup sitting on the living room table. Placing the dishes beside the sink, Lana headed back into the living room to grab the said item. Once she took hold of the cup, Lana muttered to herself as she stared at it, “Reborn’s cup.”

Lana pondered as to how the hitman managed to find out her full name, since Vi had never referred to her by it, only her first name. Trying to shrug the thought off since it was giving her a headache, Lana decided to resume her dish washing duty. Once she took out the dish dryer from the cabinet below the sink. Lana commenced washing all of the dishes closest to her first. When she had finished most of them, Lana turned off the water and went over to see the dishes on the table. Wondering if Tsunomichi ate some and hopefully not all of the leftovers. However, much to Lana’s surprise, she found out that most of the plates of food were already gone on the table, replaced with only two lunch boxes atop of the dining room table.

Taking a closer inspection of the lunch boxes, Lana noticed that each one had a particular design referring to them by their primary flames. A white lunch box of stars scattering around and a black lunch box filled with different phases of the moon. Lana felt bad for doubting on Tsunomichi after seeing this, he even managed to get them lunch boxes which both of them forgot to get at the supermarket. Heck, he even washed and put away the dishes she was supposed to do before going to sleep!

Lana glanced around the kitchen to see if there was some kind of sticky note and pen to use. Luckily for her there was one set by the landline away from the sink. She used the note to thank Tsunomichi for packing the lunch, and headed over to place the note on the supposed office he’s staying in. The girl then took both of the lunch boxes to place into the fridge to preserve the food. A yawn sounded from her mouth, feeling her need for sleep, Lana went straight up the stairs for bed.

After Lana had left for bed, Tsunomichi peered from his office door to see what was put on his door. Slightly fearful of whether it was Vi who placed it in order to intimidate him. However the caretaker was surprised by what he found, a thank you note from Lana for packing their food. He felt touched to see that there was some signs of kindness from Lana even though she seemed ready to strangle him too about their replicated rooms. Feeling appreciated for his role as caretaker, Tsunomichi returned to his office wearing a content smile on his face.

Opening the door to her room, Lana took out a matching pair of pastel blue pajamas bearing the sleeping star twins known as Kiki and Lala. Lana mumbled in embarrassment, “I forget that I had these pajamas.”

Dragging herself over to the bathroom while holding her pajamas in hand, Lana’s eyes squinted from the brightness of the bathroom lights. She spotted two sinks, a toilet, and a bath/shower combo with a shower door. Standing in front of the two sinks was none other than Vi in her pajamas, wiping her wet hair with a towel, “I took a quick shower.”

“Wow.” Lana admitted in awe, “That’s a pretty fast shower.”

“Didja want to use the bathroom?” Vi asked, already unplugging the hair dryer from the wall socket.

“Yeah.” Lana headed into the bath and shower combo and closed the door behind her.

As Lana was taking her shower, Vi took the hair dryer into her room. Once she finished blow-drying her hair, she went back into the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She stared incredulously at the clear dinosaur patterned cup on the side of the sink. “They took my toothbrush.”

Lana stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped on her hair while wearing the pajamas she chose and holding onto the folded clothes she wore today, “Calm yourself, Vi. Did you double check your suitcase or room to make sure it's still there?”

Vi walked back to her room holding the bright green toothbrush, still somewhat in shock. “My toothbrush. Oh my god.” Mumbling to herself as she looked through her carry on bag. She took out a case and mentally prepared herself before opening it. “Oh wow okay.”

She walked back to the bathroom holding a toothbrush in each hand. “This is fucking surreal.”

Lana goes back to her room to place her laundry into the laundry basket she found in her closet. Going back over to her suitcase, Lana grabbed her pink travel toothbrush, a clear plastic cup, and toothpaste. Walking back into the bathroom, Lana filled up her cup with water and started brushing her teeth. After gargling all of the minty foam using the water, Lana spat the contents into the sink. Cleaning the cup with the sink water, she placed the toothbrush and toothpaste into the cup.

Brushing her teeth quickly yet thoroughly, Vi went through her ritual of mouthwash and floss. “Dental hygiene is very important,” she stated, turning to Lana. “Also my dentist has scarred me for life.”

“I can see that.” Lana commented as she continued to dry her hair using the towel first and then went to use the blow dryer in her room in the bathroom.

“Alright I’m done with my stuff. Night!” Vi exited the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

“Night!” Lana responded back to Vi as she finished blow drying her hair, unplugging the item to return the said item to the dresser. Lana then switched off the lights and tucked herself into bed.

And thus their first night in their new house in their new world ended.

Vi was startled awake by the sharp chirping of her alarm. She sat up feeling absolutely dead to the world. “Wow tiny me is not a morning person.” She looked to the side, spotting her alarm clock on the ground where she swatted it. “Well thank goodness I’m awake.” The room was dimly lit since it wasn’t facing the rising sun.

She put her glasses on and made her way to the bathroom, still groggy and yawning widely without covering her mouth. When she entered the bathroom, she saw Lana’s door still closed. “I guess she’s not awake yet. Gotta be quiet…”

Spotting her reflection in the mirror, she put a hand on her hair in shock. “This is exactly why I never got bangs again.” Her hair was sticking up in all directions, defying gravity. Looking for a flat iron in the cabinet underneath the sinks, she found bottles of hair products of all types. “How much stuff does he think a girl needs? Like the only thing I would ever use is shampoo, conditioner, and maybe a detangler spray.” She spotted the flat iron behind the hair dryer from yesterday.

Acting quickly so Lana wouldn’t see her anything less than perfect, she turned it on, waited until it was warm enough, and swiftly pulled her bangs straight. “Ah, wonderful. Maybe I should have gotten hair clips yesterday, but I can pull off bangs.” Hearing noises coming from Lana’s room, she pulled the plug, wrapping up the flat iron, and hid the evidence.

Vi closed the cabinet door and picked up her toothbrush just in time for Lana to walk through the door.

Lana groaned as she turned off the alarm clock, feeling slightly groggy. It had been awhile since she woke up this early to get ready for school. Getting off of her bed, Lana fixed her bed sheets straightening out the wrinkles made. Once she finished, Lana went to grab the comb sitting on her dresser to comb the small bundle of mess known as her hair. After combing her hair, Lana headed straight into the bathroom. She tried to stop herself from rubbing her eyes while opening the door to the bathroom, inside she found Vi already brushing her teeth.

“Good morning, Vi.” Lana mumbled taking her cup to get her toothbrush.

“Mornngg,” Vi managed to garble out, toothbrush and foam in her mouth.

The two got themselves ready in silence, brushing their teeth and washing their faces. They finished tidying up and drowsily plodded downstairs, still in their pajamas.

The duo walked into the kitchen to find their student uniforms folded nicely on the table with a note on top with a checkered hat, presumably from the only checker maniac in the house, Tsunomichi.

Lana took the note and read the letter out loud.

**_Good Morning!_ **

**_I hope you two are ready to start going to school! Normally I would be there to take you to school as your legal guardian, however, Master Checkerface requested my help so I am currently away on business. Although, I am confident that you two are able to take good care of yourselves and are able to make it to school with no troubles._ **

**_Remember the rules given to you._ **

**_Your caretaker, Tsunomichi._ **

Listening in the back, Vi took her head out of the fridge, “Wonder what kind of business that could be.” She found the curry bread that Lana bought yesterday. “Aw Lana, is this for me?”

“Yes.” Lana stifled a yawn while refolding the letter, “I’m not dealing anything today without coffee.” She turned to the coffee machine, taking out the box of french vanilla Vi had purchased yesterday.

Vi was still rifling through the fridge and called out. “Hey do you want anything to drink besides coffee? Also, I still gotta toast my bread.”

Lana headed over to set the toaster oven, “Could you get me an apple, two eggs, and half a glass of orange juice?”

Vi passed the curry bread to Lana who put it in the oven, got out an apple, two eggs, the orange juice jug, and the almond milk carton for herself, and closed the fridge.

Once she got the eggs, Lana took out a frying pan and spatula. “ Vi, scrambled or over easy?” Lana asked while drizzling a small amount of olive oil onto the pan.

“Scrambled.” Vi sipped her almond milk, waiting for her curry bread to finish toasting.

Lana muttered to herself as she salted the first scrambled egg, “Guess I’m the only one who prefers over easy.”

While pouring Lana her glass of orange juice, Vi remembered a thing. “I saw two boxes in the fridge. What were those?”

“Those are our lunchboxes, I think Tsunomichi packed the leftovers for us after I offered him some dinner.” Lana replied, starting on her over easy egg.

“Really?” Vi went to the fridge and took the boxes out while putting the orange juice and milk back. “Hey Lana, did you look inside them yet?”

“No, I was too drowsy yesterday.” Lana stopped for a moment by the time she finished her over easy egg, after realizing her small mistake, “I should’ve checked, drat.”

Upon opening the boxes, Vi began laughing so hard, she choked on her milk. “This is absolutely surreal.”

Lana, making sure the stove was off, headed over to look. “Did I make the right choice in giving him food?”

“I fucking guess so, this is completely hilarious.” Vi put her drink down, starting to cry a little.

Lana gaped at what she saw, “Wow…this is adorable.”

It was the cutest fucking lunch boxes either of them had seen. Vegetables cut into little flowers, those little hot dogs cut into octopi, the rice was shaped into cute animals with faces made out of seaweed. The stir-fry from yesterday was neatly put around everything, creating a nice border. Overall, it was absolutely adorable.

After taking taking a bite of her food, Lana had to admit. “Either he really is taking his job as caretaker seriously or he’s legitimately terrified of us and made this to save himself.”

“I don’t even know any more.” Vi shook her head. “It almost seems like a shame to eat these. If he made these every day, I might forgive him in a week.”

Lana marveled at their caretaker’s success, “Tsunomichi has found the way to your heart, through your stomach. I also kind of owe him an apology later…anyways! It’s school time, c’mon we need to change into our uniforms!”

They each grabbed their own uniform from the table and spotted something. Underneath the uniforms was another note with an orange dying will bullet, that the duo could only guess was from their guest yesterday.

**I’ll be expecting you two tonight.**

**-Reborn**

“Well, that’s not terrifying at all,” Vi broke the silence with her sarcastic remark.

“At least he somewhat knows our situation.” Lana stated while taking custody of the letter.

“Our situation? Do you mean constant threat of death? Ah yes, I am so pleased that a hit man knows that we are in constant danger.” Vi retorted. She sighed heavily. “Why don’t we just get changed.”

The two headed back up the stairs to change into their respective school uniforms. When they finished, they met downstairs in the living room.

Lana dressed in a white blouse covered by a dark blue sleeveless sweater vest, paired with a grey skirt and black leggings, last but not least a red bow tie on the collar of her blouse. On her hair was none other than the same bow clip she bought at the accessory store to hold back her bangs and in hand was an olive colored messenger bag meant to be used for her laptop that is now used for her messenger bag. Decorating on the zipper, Lana added a rabbit charm adorning a gold bell she used back in high school.

Vi wore the same as Lana except she chose to ditch the black leggings for a pair of black thigh highs. In her head, she complained about being absolutely stifled in the layers. She especially wanted to rip off the stupid red bow that had no business being there, but she settled for laying it flat and covering it with the purple scarf she bought the day before. She had dug out a medium black messenger bag from her closet and decided to use that as her book bag. She decorated her bag with a bunch of pins she had collected over the years. There were five small cat face buttons, two rainbow pins, three dog faces, a volleyball, a snake, and a crab. She decided to keep with the same purple running sneakers she wore to the airport, since boots and the like were just impractical for school.

In the living room after seeing each other, Vi raised an eyebrow. “These uniforms are awful.”

“We have no choice, since they enrolled us into Namimori Middle School and not some other school.” Lana referred to what’s already been done according to the letters. “Plus, I feel awkward in this too. I can’t believe miss being in a public school now for just the choice of picking different clothes for everyday.”

Vi was distracted by the bow on her collar. “I am completely disgusted by this red bow? Tie? Bow-tie? It’s hideous. It’s too frumpy and weird. Why is this even a thing. I despise it. I would set it on fire and throw it in a garbage can full of shit.”

“Aren’t uniforms more of a private school attire? I remember boarding schools did this when we were in our world.” Lana recalled the students who’d often walk around in uniforms compared to them.

“Yeah, private schools in America have uniforms. But a lot of Japanese public schools have uniforms, not just the private schools. I just wish this could look nicer! Who designed this, I look like a child.”

“What if it was Hibari?” Lana suddenly felt sick after saying that. “I want to take that back and throw myself somewhere, because I just imagined the impossible.”

“Eughh, no!” Vi looked even more disgusted. “If it was, then he has terrible fashion sense. I don’t even want to think about that. What time is it now?” She checked her watch.

“Alright enough panicking about the uniform.” Lana glanced at the time on her phone, “I think we need to start walking.”

“Yeah, alright. How long do you think it’ll take to walk to school?” Vi asked as she took her house keys out of her pocket.

Lana took out the map of Namimori they were given yesterday to make an estimate. “Roughly twenty minutes to get there from what the map shows.” Lana returned the map to her bag to make sure it’s within reach in case they get lost. “Okay, time to start our return to the education system.”

Vi followed Lana out the house and locked the door behind them. “Eugh, twenty minute walk. Why isn’t there a school bus or something? Or at least a regular bus.”

“These streets are too narrow for busses Vi.” Lana pointed out to Vi, gesturing to the street they walked on yesterday.

Vi waved her arms in frustration. “Yeah, but like, walk to the main street and then take a bus! Twenty minutes is practically a hike. What if I die of exhaustion?”

“You haven’t died of exhaustion yesterday when we went to explore Namimori and you survived walking to school before.” Lana frowned at Vi.

“It’s the education system. Shopping is one thing. I look forward to shopping. I very distinctly do Not look forward to going through middle school again.” Vi sniffed in derision, looking incredibly sulky.

“No choice remember.” Even Lana didn’t want to go back to school, but questions will probably be raised about preteens not going to school. Then the possibility of Hibari scouting the area for students who ditched or literally don’t want to go to school will be out for the kill if they even dare attempt it.

Vi grumbled into her scarf. “Shoulda brought a coffee, it’s cold out. I hate this. How long ‘til we get to school?”

“I think…” Lana grabbed her phone from the pocket of her messenger bag, “We have exactly…oh no…10 minutes before the warning bell.”

“Shoot, that’s ridiculous.” Vi widened her stride, not wanting to be late.

Lana couldn’t keep up and started speed walking at the other girl. “Vi, slow down a little. Your legs are too long.”

Vi turned around and walked backwards. “Booo! Not my fault you have short legs. But I will admit I have an unfair advantage here.” Vi slowed her pace and waited for Lana to catch up.

Increasing her speed into a sprint, Lana passed Vi and headed straight for the direction of the school, “That’s what you get!”

“Betrayal! From the most unexpected source!” Vi yelled, running after Lana. “No fair! You got a head start!”

Lana shouted behind her, “First to school wins!”

Vi quickly caught up to Lana with her longer legs and passed her. “Bad idea, bud! See you at school, Lana!” she yelled back, waving behind her.

Once she was a good distance ahead of the other girl, Vi took out her phone and opened up the picture of the map of the town. She began mapping out shortcuts, using alleys with less people and other low traffic areas.

She turned a corner into an alley and spotted a tiny crying cat. “Oh no! You’re adorable! I must pet you!” Remembering her lack of time, she just fucking grabbed the kitten and started to run away. Hugging the kitten to her chest, she cooed. “Oh you’re so fluffy and white and I love you. I wonder if I can keep you secret until later.”

She continued running through alleys and side streets, narrowly missing trash cans and loose garbage. As she skidded out of an alley, fully intact and dusting herself off, she spotted some students wearing the same uniform as her walking up a hill.

“It’s a hill?! Seriously?!” She bemoaned the uphill climb, as she adjusted her bag and the kitten in her arm. Cursing her plight, she started walking up the hill. She got some weird looks for having a cat with her, but she ignored them and concentrated on not tripping and falling on her face.

Not seeing Lana anywhere, Vi reached the school gates in peace. “Ohoho, Lana should know by now that I take my competitions super serious. Now what should I do about you, kitty?” She held up the kitten, Lion King style.

Left behind, Lana grumbled at Vi’s speed, “I forgot she was faster than me due to height.”

As Lana jogged down the sidewalk, she noticed a sudden increase of people out today besides the students. There were people exercising or walking their dogs, students from other schools going down a different direction, and workers rushing to get to work. Lana barely dodged the incoming lady walking her dog heading down her way.

“Why are there so many people out today?!” Lana bit her lip as she continued to evade incoming obstacles she came by. Unknown to her surroundings, there was a soft yellow gleam shining from her bag in the same pocket Lana placed her rings in. In the midst of her constant evasions, Lana spotted a cute dog wandering outside its house.

“Oh, what a cute dog—" Without even realizing it, Lana’s face had slammed into the pole. The gleam soon died down as Lana cringed in pain as she pinched the bridge of her nose, “Ouch.”

Taking a few steps back, Lana leaned down to pet the adorable dog’s head out of satisfaction. Once she got her satisfactory amount of petting, Lana continued running onward to see a familiar building. Nami-Middle in all its seemingly normal glory, with students entering from the hill. Wait…a hill?! The uphill climb?!

“Oh my…no!” Lana screeched as she attempted increase her speed more, “Uphill climbing…time to internally sing the Love Hime song!”

Humming the tune to herself, Lana’s sprint slowly inched after each person she surpassed while smiling to herself. Each person that was passed wondered why in the world was she smiling with a small bruise in the middle of her forehead. Although by the time Lana spotted the gates of the school, she saw Vi already leaning against the gates waiting for her.

“Well there goes my chances of winning.” Confirming that she lost to the other girl, Lana slowed down her pace back to walking.

“What took you so long, slowpoke?” Vi grinned from where she stood next to the gates.

Lana reached the gates and sighed in pain, feeling a tingling sensation in her legs. “Congratulations, you won. Do you have water? I unfortunately forgot my water bottle at home.”

Vi dug into her messenger one-handed, her other arm held at a suspicious angle out of Lana’s view. “Yeah, sure. Oh, jeez what’s that on your head?”

“I ran into a pole after spotting a cute dog on the sidewalk.” Lana finished after taking a waterfall of water. “It was a really cute dog, it’s too bad I don’t have any pets like that one.”

Stifling her giggles at the mental image, Vi put an arm around Lana’s shoulders. “Nice job anyways. Although let’s not do this every morning to avoid the whole dying of thirst thing, okay?” Still, she felt an odd sense of pride at winning their little contest.

Unbeknownst to her, Vi’s ring flickered up for a few seconds and her hands glowed dimly. The glow went into Lana and the girl felt a sharp tingle.

“Ouch!” Lana briefly yelped feeling as if electricity shot through her. “Huh?” Lana blinked a few times  in realization before placing the palm of her hand on her forehead, “My bruise doesn’t hurt as much all of a sudden.” She took a moment to collect herself and realized that she felt rather refreshed for someone who just ran up a hill.

Eyes wide, Vi whispered, “I think I saw my thing light up,” holding her hand up.

“So does this mean it was your you know what?” Lana whispered back to Vi.

“Yeah possibly! What happened? What did you feel?” Stoked at the discovery of her new flame, Vi shook Lana in excitement.

“Oh man, that’s so cool, I wonder if I can do that to myself.” Putting a hand on her chest, she scrunched up her eyebrows in concentration. Soon the duo saw her ring dimly light up and hand glow a little. “Dang that packs a punch. Kinda like I just chugged an energy drink.”

“Uhh, Vi…I know this is a little late to say but why are you holding a cat?” Lana pointed out at the small animal still in Vi’s grasp.

“Um. I found it.” Shifty eyed, Vi held the kitten a little tighter. The kitten mewed in protest.

“Where exactly?” Lana’s eyes narrowed at the girl holding the kitten close.

Feigning ignorance, Vi looked at her nonexistent watch on her wrist. “Oh, would you look at the time! We should head to the admin office!” She started to walk ahead towards the building.

“Vi…” Lana shook her head in disappointment, “Why are you taking the cat? At least hide it or something!”

Vi turned around, grinning brightly. “Come on Lana, fix your shirt already. You look like you just ran a mile.”

After they cleaned themselves up a little and Vi hid the cat in her bag, they headed to the administration office. They sat in the waiting room for a couple minutes before the secretary called them into the principal’s office.

The principal was sitting in his chair facing the pair, two packets sitting on the desk in front of him. “Take a seat.” He gestured to the chairs in front of the desk, that looked very similar in style to the waiting room chairs. Which meant that they would be moderately uncomfortable.

After taking a seat, the duo got a good look at what was supposed to be the principal of Namimori Middle School. The principal was a professional looking stout old man, showing signs of age, but had a head full of hair that was obviously a bald comb over wig. It was a little hard not to stare too much at the wig, but they managed to sit through most of his spiel about the importance of learning and being proper young girls in a professional school setting and blah blah blah.

Wanting to get his speech over with, Vi put on her best teacher’s pet face. Looking like an innocent angel, she smiled sweetly. “Of course, we want nothing more but to get the best possible learning experience out of this! We’ve heard so much about the brilliant teachings of this esteemed institution and were so pleased to be enrolled here.”

Lana internally wanted to die, because right now she’s suffering by seeing the look of high expectations the principal was showing when Vi started conversing with the principal. She was probably an inch to killing herself at the moment but remembered that she was in a school, playing an insane game created by someone named Checkerface while in the body of a preteen. Leaving Vi behind in a fictional world through death is probably the last thing she wanted to do her friend.

The principal seemed to be very impressed with Vi’s performance. “Well that’s excellent! Oh, I seem to have rambled on a tad. Why don’t you kids go get yourselves acquainted with our humble school.” Waving a hand, he excused them from his office. “And don’t be late for class, now!”

“Thank you sir!” Vi grabbed a packet and walked out first, making sure to bow slightly.

Lana did the same as Vi, closed the door behind her, and followed after.

Once they were out of earshot, far away from the principal’s office, Vi turned to Lana. “School is a hack. All teachers want to hear the same thing. ‘I love learning’ and fancy words like ‘esteemed institution’ and bullshit. It’s almost too easy,” making a face at how easily the principal was charmed.

“Terror.” Lana mumbled, somewhat feeling grossed out from the principal’s reaction. She opened up the packet she grabbed from the principal's desk. Inside the packets was a map of the school grounds, with their classroom written on the bottom of the map.

“Ahh school. The foundations of education. I’m practically in my element.” Opening her own packet, Vi looked inside, spotting the map, a student handbook, and other miscellaneous papers. She made a mental note to read the handbook thoroughly for ways she could bend the rules.

“Hey, you guys…” Lana noticed something about the area they were at after opening the map. Pointing at a spot on the paper, “I think we’re here.”

Vi knocked her head into Lana's. "Yep looks like it. We should probably head to class now.” she said, observing the halls were void of other students..

Lana personally didn’t want to be late to class unless she was sick, “Transfer students shouldn’t skip their first class otherwise that conversation you had with the principal just now would be pretty much wasted effort.”

Vi sighed. “Of course. Wouldn’t want my good student status to be tarnished, after all.”

By some miracle, the two had ended up assigned to the same classroom. They entered the classroom to find that class had already started.

Everyone turned to look at the new arrivals. One student in particular let out a small gasp, “Lana! Vi! Oh my gosh!”

Lana’s face paled, “Oh, it’s Kyoko.” She silently cringed at the attention the students were now giving them because of her sudden mentioning out loud.

Behind Lana, Vi muttered, “Oh. That’s why she looked familiar.”


	5. Rain, Rain, Stay Awake

In their shock at seeing Kyoko in the classroom, the two didn't immediately notice the teacher talking to them.

"Excuse me." The teacher stood at the front of the class, stern look on his face. "You are the transfer students, aren't you? I had expected you earlier. Where were you?"

Vi had her teacher's pet mask back on. "Oh, the principal was telling us about the school. He was very informative, but unfortunately, he lost track of time. But he sent us to class, telling us how great of a teacher you were and that he sends his regards." Grinning brightly at the teacher, she quickly charmed him.

Lana paled while muttering to herself of what she was seeing, "She's at it again."

The teacher scratched his head, feeling a mixture of pride and embarrassment. "Well, I guess that's fine then. Anyways, why don't you introduce yourselves." He stepped aside and motioned for them to write their names on the chalkboard.

"Um, excuse me sir." Lana spoke up, "Unfortunately my name is in English, is it fine to write it as is?"

"Sir, I'm afraid that goes for me, as well. You see, we're not from here." Vi interjected.

The teacher seemed lost and confused, having never had to deal with this many transfer students at once. "Er well, I suppose you could write your names in English and then read it out loud for your classmates."

"I have a Chinese name, is it better if I use that?" Vi wondered, curious.

Flustered, the teacher continued. "If you want to use your other name, you can, but you don't have to."

Both take a piece of chalk, each of them writing their names up on the board. Once they finished, they all turned to face the class.

"Lana Vega"

Since her name was in English, a few students got it but not all of them.

"Nice to meet you all, my name is Lana Vega." Lana gave a small bow before resuming her introduction, "Although I prefer to be called Lana more than my surname, and let's all strive for good year!"

Content with her introduction, which sounded so generic and foreign to her in her own mind, Lana stepped back to allow Vi to introduce herself next.

Her name got some strange looks from the students who didn't recognize the uncommon kanji.

張

維 Victoria Chang

娟

"Nice to meet you. My name is Victoria Chang, but my last name can be pronounced Chō in Japanese if you feel like calling me that. I'm flexible about it. Otherwise, you may call me Victoria, or Vi." She bowed to them and continued speaking. "Let's get along this year."

The teacher stared blankly at the duo who managed to completely distract the class from his lecture. "Okay, there seem to be two empty seats by the windows. Take your seats and we can start class."

Vi took the first spot and Lana the one behind that. The teacher began his lecture anew once the two got themselves situated.

"Oh, since you may not have the books yet, go ahead and share with the student next to you."

Lana internally clicked her tongue the moment she realized who was sitting next to her. Lana knew Vi took the the first spot on purpose. Soon the sound of a desk and chair scraping the echoed to her right.

Turning her head to the source of who moved their desk, Lana had to blink twice to realize who's sitting next to her. Orange hair, check. Sparkly shoujo eyes, check. Warm smile to anyone that's friendly, check. Indeed this person was none other than—

"I can't believe we're in the same class!" The girl sent a bedazzling smile toward Lana, internally making the poor girl cringe at how bright it is. Her brightness was suddenly like a star exploding in space. How did she not see this the first time she met Kyoko? Oh yeah, she was too focused on desserts to cate, "And to reintroduce myself, my name is Sasagawa Kyoko."

"Nice to meet you again, Kyoko." Lana started to question as to how many people, especially Tsuna and Ryohei, can stand the sparkly aura of hers when she was basically being stabbed in the eyes with it. Moving her desk over to join Kyoko's, the said girl shifted the textbook over to share. Lana returned Kyoko a smile of thanks, but internally wept at her timing of horrible luck today.

Out of the corner of Lana's eyes, on the edge of textbook was a drawing of a smiley face. Returning her gaze back to Kyoko, who continued taking notes, Lana wasn't truly sure of whether to feel blessed by the school idol like many others or attempt to ignore the drawing which tried to get her to bond with one of the female protagonists of KHR.

Vi turned to see a relatively good looking boy. Like he wouldn't win any beauty contests, but he wasn't by any means ugly. Anyways he was like a solid 6/10, she rated. Not particularly interesting yet. He was sort of plain, had black hair, brown eyes, and pretty thick glasses. An average cute nerd.

"Hi, nice to meet you!" She smiled and extended her hand.

The boy shook her hand firmly and responded. "Hello Chō-san, welcome to our class. My name is Sakamoto Hideki. I'm the class representative, so if you ever need something, you can ask me."

Internally, she was very pleased with herself, having chosen someone who knew what they were doing. He got up and moved his desk next to hers. Placing the textbook in the center between their desks, he continued, "Let's get along."

Already thinking of ways she could twist him around her finger, she smiled slyly, looking up from under her eyelashes. "Okay, Sakamoto-kun."

The teacher continued lecturing once they had the books in front of them. "Okay class, now who can tell me…"

First period seemed to last forever. The hour ended and the teacher left the classroom. Almost immediately, most of the students gathered around the duo's desks.

"So where are you guys from?" A small girl with wavy brown hair asked them. A couple other students nodded and leaned in, curious about the answer.

"America, but if you want a more specific area, it's California." Lana started her explanation, "My parents take me back to visit the Philippines once in awhile."

"I was born in Taiwan," Vi responded. "But raised in Cali most of my life. I go back to visit every summer, so I really have a connection there."

A tall boy with black hair and glasses interrupted. "How do you know each other?"

"Um. We met in elementary school and we've been joined at the hip since." Vi recalled. _'Well, it was actually middle school, but I can't tell them_ **_that_ ** _.'_

"Why did you guys come here from California?" A tall blond girl asked.

"We were interested in Japanese culture." Lana managed to convince the students with a common answer.

Vi nodded in agreement. "We were also interested in the schools here and how they were different from American schools."

"Lana-chan, do you and Vi-chan like help getting around the school?" Kyoko asked the duo.

"That's alright." Lana declined the offer given by Kyoko. As much as she liked Kyoko, Lana wanted to keep her personal space clear.

Vi nodded, no longer listening, put her bag on her lap and sneakily started petting the inside.

The class bell chimed and a different teacher walked in. "Alright everyone, let's sit down and get your books out. Well, I see we have new students. You can share with the person next to you."

Vi turned to Sakamoto again, "Well, Sakamoto-kun, I guess we'll be sharing again!" She batted her eyelashes and smirked internally as he pinked a little.

Without any need for speaking, Kyoko immediately shared her textbook with Lana who continued to cringe seeing more smileys on the edge of the next book. Smileys everywhere. Lana prayed that she would get by today without seeing another one after school.

Thus, the day passed, each period becoming increasingly similar to the last. The teacher would come in, intrigued by the new students, tell them that it was okay to share books, and continue with class. After class, their classmates would come running up to them with more questions. "How fluent are you guys in your natural languages? Do you have a significant other? Do you like sports? Do you play sports? Which club will you join?" The two were becoming increasingly tired of answering these questions and were becoming more and more grateful for the interruption the teacher's entrance made.

During lunch, they got several compliments on their adorable bentos and more questions of who made them. The two had trouble holding their laughter as they remembered seeing them in the morning and the fact that Tsunomichi had made the adorable lunches for them. And Vi occasionally 'dropped' food into the bag in her lap.

By the end of the day, the duo was unusually exhausted by the relentless questioning. Classes ended and everyone packed up, saying their farewells and 'see you tomorrow's.

"Kill me…" Lana exasperated unable to take the endless amount of smileys and sea of questions directed at them.

Vi yawned, covering her mouth. "I'm beat. Should we go home or stay here and wait for the thing?"

"How about a nap?" Lana suggested, feeling exhausted from today's class.

"Home it is!" Vi took out her bag and brought out her cat. "Aw it's sleeping. Too cute."

"Nap awaits!" Lana raised her arms to stretch, feeling the need for more rest. As they started walking, she sighed heavily, "Do you want to know what Kyoko drew on the edge of her textbooks every time she shared her book with me?"

Vi hummed, rubbing her face into the kitten's fur. "No what did she do? Little miss sunshine."

"She kept drawing smileys, and during each class period when she shifts her book to me, the smileys increase!" Lana claimed, "She's trying to befriend me in the most uncomfortable way."

Vi held out the kitty towards Lana. "Shhh, just pet the kitty. Animal therapy."

Lana didn't hesitate to pet the kitten held in Vi's arms. The kitten was quite fluffy and made it difficult to not pet the animal.

They arrived home, exhausted. Lana unlocked the door and they all filed into the living room.

Vi dropped onto the chaise part of the sectional and laid the cat on top of her. "Wake me up for dinner."

Locking the front door behind her, Lana grabbed a pillow by the end of the sofa to rest her head on, "Yeah."

By the time they woke up, it was already dark outside. Strangely, the duo did not remember having blankets on top of them before they slept.

"Uh Lana? Please tell me you woke up and put blankets on us." Vi pleaded, eyes wide.

"…I hate to say this Vi, but it wasn't me this time." Lana replied, a little bit surprised.

Vi stiffened up, realizing something was missing. "Where's the cat?" She flipped over the blankets and searched under the table. "Where's the cat?!"

"Um, Vi?" Lana tapped the girl's shoulder, "I think the lights in the kitchen are on."

"Nya??" Vi turned her head very quickly, hitting Lana in the face with her hair. "Nyaa!" she yelled as she ran to the kitchen.

"Blech!" Lana grimaced at getting hit by Vi's hair. "I didn't need that."

Upon entering the kitchen corridor, their eyes widened to see the cat Vi had taken with her eating cat food while being petted by their caretaker.

Hearing the sound of footsteps nearby, Tsunomichi turned his head over to them wearing a smile on his face, "Tonight's dinner is curry! Not too spicy, but a good blend of mild!"

Heading over to inspect her cat, Vi looked at Tsunomichi suspiciously. "Where did you get the cat food?"

"The pet store." Tsunomichi answered to the girl.

"So this means I can keep the cat." Vi responded.

"Yes, at first I was going to return the kitten to the shelter, but they grew on me right after I fed it." Tsunomichi spoke in delight.

Vi pumped a fist in the air in success. "Yus. Cat acquired." Grabbing the kitten, she held it over her head like Simba in victory. "Oh it's a girl."

On the stovetop was a pot of curry and steam was coming out of the rice cooker.

Lana opened the pot of curry to inspect it while reaching for a bowl. "Hey Tsunomichi, what did you put in here?"

Tsunomichi, counting on his fingers, listed off the ingredients, "There's potatoes, carrots, onions, some green onions, and a mix of chicken and beef."

Vi had grabbed a bowl while no one was paying attention. "Really? There's onions in this?" She had already stuck a spoonful into her mouth. "You can barely taste it. Nice." and gave Tsunomichi a thumbs up.

"You actually got Vi to eat onions," Impressed by Tsunomichi's cooking skills, Lana sent a smile to him before proceeding to scoop her own helping of curry and rice, "That's amazing, also thank you very much for making our lunch and dinner for today."

Vi paused before taking another bite. "Oh yeah, I guess thanks for lunch too?" She continued shoveling food into her mouth.

Tsunomichi shook his head and gave the two a kind smile. "Not a problem at all. It is all part of my duty as your caretaker after all. Now, once you are finished just leave your dishes on the counter, I will take care of both cleaning and packing your lunches for tomorrow." Clapping his hands once, he walked out of the kitchen leaving the duo alone.

They each took a seat in the chairs around the island and ate their curry.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. The cat doesn't have a name yet." Vi spoke up between bites of food.

The cat stared at them with its big blue eyes. Raising a soft fluffy paw, she licked it and scratched at her ear, until her white fur was sticking up in a cowlick.

Vi cooed at it. "So cute."

"We could name her Snow." Lana suggested by the kitten's fur. "What did you have in mind?"

Vi looked away suddenly and mumbled, "When I didn't know she was a girl yet, I was calling her Blue Eyes White Dragon in my head."

"As much as I like the card series, the name Blue Eyes White Dragon is pushing it a bit too far." Lana didn't exactly hate the name, but giving a cat a name meant for a card. "How about a different name?"

"But it matches her!" Vi argued, holding the cat up.. "Look at her!"

Lana raised her hands up to keep the cat's face away from her own, "I don't need to see the cat's face this close, Vi."

"Why don't you give her a normal name instead?" Lana suggested yet again, hoping Vi would choose different name for the cat.

Vi thought for a second before responding, "Miss Ivory Lily Katie. Milk for short."

"Well that's an interesting anagram." Though Lana had to admit the name was much better than the one Vi had in mind before. "So now that we've named your cat, Milk, let's review what we're going to do now."

Vi slumped down in her seat. "We're going to watch over the battle, under orders of Reborn. Still can't get over how freaky that is," she mumbled under her breath. "Gotta make sure everything happens the way it's supposed to. Like our existence here hasn't fucked up the natural order."

"Yeah, I'd rather not see something like that happen." Lana frowned at the thought, "It'd be weird if the plot goes out of hand, and we wouldn't be able to know a single thing of what's going on with the main group."

"Absolutely bizarre. Not to mention we'd lose any advantage that we have by knowing the plot ahead of time." Scrunching her face in frustration, Vi continued her train of thought. "So we have to observe the ring battles. As long as we don't interfere with any big plot points, we should be fine. But do you think that means we shouldn't interact with any main characters?"

"There's no rule that says we can't talk to the main characters, if anything we already talked to one of them." Lana referred while feeling a bit on edge with the memory of talking to the baby hitman. "But to think we're going to see an actual battle unfold right before our eyes, it's still pretty unbelievable."

Vi sat up straight as a thought came to her. "Shit. Do you think we might have to fight in any of the battles? Is that why the Cervello had to train us? We have a training gym in our basement! What the hell?!"

Lana paused to think. ' _Vi's right. They gave us these weapons and trained us for a reason. Plus the rules didn't say that we can't harm the major characters._ ' She clicked her tongue in frustration. ' _If only there was some kind of sign proving our need for being here_.'

Vi, not noticing Lana lost in her thoughts, continued to freak out. "Oh my god! We can't fight them! What the hell?! Hibari could kill us! He probably has killed people! Tsuna shoots flames out of his hands! That's not a normal human thing! Lana, what the hell?! Oh my god! We're going to die!" she cried. Grabbing Milk, she buried her face into its side and whined pitifully.

"Mrow."

"Huh?" Lana, finally snapping out of her thoughts, glanced over to Vi's distress. "Isn't that the reason why the Cervello trained us?" She pointed out, speaking her thoughts out loud to Vi. "To avoid dying until the end of the game. A form of protection that way we don't need to depend on the major characters if something does happen to us. Or better yet if something that doesn't normally happen in KHR occurs due to our existence here."

Voice muffled by the cat's fur, Vi replied, "I suppose. We sort of have our own powers right? Like what happened earlier with me accidentally shooting you."

"Yeah, and hopefully I'm not the guinea pig next time if you unlock a lethal attack to your power." Lana was grateful for Vi's energy shot, but what would happen if Vi ends up unleashing an untested attack on accident? Lana shook her head at the thought of it.

Still talking into the side of the cat, Vi sounded excited at the idea. "Dude, that would be so cool. What kind of death ray are we talking about here? Because I'd be down with laser blasts. That's some superhero powers right there."

"Hm, but didn't something gleamed in your bag when you did it?" Lana scratched her head in uncertainty, "I think it might be something we have that allowed you to do it. Well I'm pretty sure it wasn't the rings we were training with in that void space area." Suddenly Lana recalled what Tsunomichi mentioned to them before, "Hey, do you think that power has something to do with the other rings we got? The ones with a star and moon symbol on them."

"What the fuck. Just more mysteries. Unknown flames with unknown properties. What even could a moon flame be?" Vi finally lifted her head from Milk and dug out the ring in her pocket to look at it.

"Well we already figured out one of your flames abilities." Lana brought up while leaning against the couch. "You can re-energize people who are tired."

"Neat, I'm an energy drink. It's what I've always wanted." Vi deadpanned with a straight face. "How exciting."

"It's only a support ability, so maybe you have more lethal capabilities that won't show up until we fight someone." Lana then gave an example, "Like in video games, where you have to fight your way in order to learn more abilities."

"I'd rather not almost die to unlock new powers, thanks. No matter how much I appreciate the whole 'evil dude possessing your friends to try and kill you' thing. That was just. Amazing." Remembering the Mukuro v. Tsuna fight, Vi sighed. "I mean, yeah that was very bad and evil. But still? That was sheer brilliance. The whole thing. Wonderful planning. Flawless execution. And he would have gotten away with it to, if it wasn't for those meddling kids."

"But I wonder what flame abilities the star flame ring has?" Lana pondered on what it could be, however nothing came to mind.

Vi tilted her head at Lana and snapped her fingers. "Shooting star. You even have a crossbow to match."

"You think so? I still haven't lit the ring yet or made any use of the star flames like you have." Lana replied to Vi, still puzzled of what star flames can do.

"Checkerface seems like the kind of asshole who likes shitty puns. And giving you a crossbow and a star flame is the best kind of pun." Vi nodded in conclusion.

"Then why did he give you a-" Lana wasn't sure of what to call Vi's weapon and just went with the closest weapon type to it, "machete?"

Vi shrugged. "What kind of joke can you think of with moons and weapons? I can't exactly knock people out with wheels of cheese."

"I don't know, I actually kind of expected him to give you one of those special knives. You know the ones shaped like a crescent moon?" Lana thought back into her mind until the name zoomed through, "The deer horn knives. I mean they're in the shape of a moon right?"

"Hm. Well, I suppose I'm not a dual weapon person. That does sound pretty cool though." Vi recalled the ruler up in her bedroom. "I just got comfortable with the 'machete' though, but I might consider switching it up once in a while. We have a pretty neat armory in our basement, ya know."

"Then again I'm pretty use to using this type of firearm, it isn't as loud as a gun and it might be convenient if we need to cross a building like a grappling hook." Lana remembered what the Cervello mentioned to her when it came to using the crossbow.

"I'm still bitter about that. You get a cool multipurpose projectile weapon. And I get sharp pointy stick." Vi pouted.

"It might be useful if we get caught you know." Lana revealed to Vi, "At least people won't suspect it's a weapon in the first place as long as you keep the machete part hidden. Plus my crossbow won't be useful once it's out of arrows, except for bludgeoning someone in the head and that's probably the last thing I'll do due to the weight."

Vi patted Lana on the shoulder. "That's alright. I can bludgeon someone in the head for you. Anyways we've gotten off track. To sum up tonight. Don't get caught, don't change anything major, don't kill anyone, don't die. Pretty much."

"Anything else? I think that was most of the rules anyways." Lana hummed to herself, already feeling the excitement run through her at the thought of seeing Tsuna.

Tsunomichi came back into the kitchen abruptly. "It's almost 10. You best be heading out soon if you want to hide yourselves before they show up."

Shoveling the rest of the food into her mouth, Vi got up and grabbed Milk and her bowl. She garbled something muffled to Tsunomichi who nodded like he understood. He took the bowl and the cat from her as she left the kitchen, hand to her head in a sort of salute.

"Did you understand what she said?" Lana questioned Tsunomichi about Vi's garbled words.

Tsunomichi shook his head. "Either something about thanks for dinner and she's going upstairs to get her things or that we're under attack by aliens and she's going to be abducted."

"I'm pretty sure it's the first one." Lana deadpanned about the second option Tsunomichi stated, "Unless she actually said that instead."

Placing her dish on the counter, Lana followed Vi upstairs to change so as not to be seen during tonight's battle.

Lana unclipped her bow clip, placing it on the dresser to not lose it. Exchanging her uniform for a pair of dark blue jeans and a black long sleeved shirt, Lana debated whether she should take anything else with her besides her cellphone. Her eyes trailed over to the star necklace sitting on her dresser, unfortunately Lana didn't want to lose it either so she decided to leave it. Only taking her phone, house keys, and finally the rings she received from Checkerface hanging on the chain of her old necklace.

Vi changed out of her rumpled uniform into a pair of black skinny jeans and a dark gray shirt. Thinking it would be cold outside, she also grabbed a fluffy black coat and some gray gloves to cover her rings. She kept the purple scarf on since she was starting to like it. "Hm, I guess that's it? Don't want to stand out too much in the dark." Putting her cellphone in her coat pocket, she headed back downstairs. She decided to keep the running shoes too since they were quiet if she walked the right way.

In the living room, Tsunomichi was waiting for them on the couch, petting Milk. Standing up, he gave them several instructions. "Alright now, make sure you don't stay out too late! Don't catch a cold outside! Be careful you don't get hurt in the aftershocks! Don't pick a fight with any of them! Make sure you try to come back immediately after the match, unless Reborn wants something with you two! I'll be waiting with a nice hot cup of cocoa when you get back! Get back home safe!"

"Oh my god, you're like a mom." Vi didn't seem to know whether to look amused or horrified.

"We can't deny the fact that he's our caretaker anyway." Lana didn't mind it, Tsunomichi actually seemed more concerned for them despite being Checkerface's assistant to say the least.

Tsunomichi sniffed indignantly. "I can't help it, I worry about you sometimes. Now shoo, you're going to be late."

The two were shooed outside by Tsunomichi, who stood inside the door, making sure the cat didn't run outside. After they were out of earshot, Lana decided to bring up a question, "So…how are you feeling about this world? Minus the excitement."

"I'm actually pretty curious about the science behind this, this is absolutely wild," Vi waved her hands in amazement. "Is this actually a parallel universe or a completely separate dimension? Why was it a manga in our world but it turns out to be reality here? How does Checkerface have the power to do this kind of shit?"

"Wow." Lana deadpanned. "I can't believe you would think about the science part of this."

Vi continued speaking as if no one had interrupted her. "Also I was running off the theory that while we're here, time back home has paused. Like while we've been removed, that universe is lacking something that makes it function." She paused in her speech. "But that's not necessarily the case."

"I hope you're right on that theory, because-" Lana paused for a moment to think about her family, "I kind of miss my mom's cooking, dad being a dad when it comes to my future choices, and last but not least actually wanting to see my brother, Will, get married to that pretty lady called Fauna who makes funny star jokes at the planetarium they work at. Like c'mon, get married already and stop stalling brother!"

"Wow, I can't believe you're already talking about marriage. Are they even dating?" Vi asked.

"Probably not." Lana huffed while giving a scowl toward answering Vi's question.

Vi laughed at the absurd situation. "That's hilarious. You're such a meddler. I bet that you're going to have to end up playing matchmaker."

"Do you think I haven't already tried?" Lana heaved a sigh in memory of what occurred, "The short version story of what happened during the plan ended in an utter failure once he found out I was the one who came up with the idea."

Vi sighed heavily. "To be honest, I don't know if I really miss anything back home? I'm mostly sure my ma isn't too worried since we were supposed to go on our trip, right? We're sort of used to not being in contact a lot. Cause like I spend so much time between Taipei and LA, we're not exactly together all the time, so she just doesn't worry too much. Plus this whole thing still feels like a dream, all very surreal."

"Mm, if this really is a dream. Then this is the longest and strangest one we ever had, although I hope nothing bad happens as we continue from here on out." Lana proposed, unsure of what's to arrive.

"Thanks Lana, you just jinxed it." Vi turned her head and looked around. "You know what they say, knock on wood." She knocked her knuckles against Lana's head.

"Ouch! Stop, my head isn't made out of wood!" Lana slapped Vi's arm away while puffing her cheeks out in frustration. "I'm not Pinocchio or a tree!"

Vi let out a short laugh. "For lack of a better wood, heads are an acceptable substitute." She sighed deeply. "How are you feeling about getting to see your boy? Still doesn't feel real."

"I'm excited, but a little out of it." Lana spoke, sounding a bit rattled by the idea of being in the world of KHR. "Now that he's real, I'm just a bit flustered by all of this. I never imagined that we'd get to talk to them in the first place."

Lana then felt her cheeks warm as she mentioned her other reason. "Also I'm a little embarrassed in meeting Tsuna, after all he's one of the first few I had a crush on back home before we bridged onto other shows."

Vi seemed to have no shame as she talked about her own romantic interests. "Mukuro! Chrome! It's like twins but less creepy! Still kind of creepy with the whole, one person thing, but not like an incest creepy!"

She paused for a second. "But like, you know. What are the odds that they would be interested us? Also would that count as interference? Fraternization? Mingling? Do you even want to try to pursue a relationship with your boy-o?"

"I don't know. Never really thought about going into a relationship with someone for a long time. Especially with Tsuna, I mean look that would mean I have Kyoko and Haru as my rivals if it happened." Lana bit her lip, "But what are the actual chances that they would fall in love with us?Our chances are pretty much low if we were ever considering it."

"Well, considering we're complete strangers as of now," Vi paused for dramatic effect, putting a hand on her chin in thought "Oh, maybe a couple years if we're lucky."

Lana mumbled, "I guess so."

The conversation trailed off at their depressing topics and they continued to walk in silence, the occasional scuff of sneakers or odd sound from a house filling the background noise.

The duo arrived at school, the buildings looking eerie in the darkness. Hearing voices approaching the building, they immediately went to hide in the bushes. In peeking out between the branches, they could see the unmistakable trenchcoat-like uniform of the Varia flowing in the wind. The duo overheard them talking as they walked past.

"Ushishishi~" A loud voice rang through the air. "Those kids shouldn't even bother showing up today since they lost so pitifully yesterday to yours truly!"

A second babyish voice butted in. "Weren't you blown up like a firecracker? Gola Mosca had to carry you back to the base."

The first person scoffed. "A prince has servants carry him, of course! And that little bomb display had nothing against me! I won the battle, didn't I?"

Suddenly a piercing cry interrupted the two. "VOOIIIII! Stop your squabbling, you brats! You're ruining my concentration!"

The baby voice whined. "What do you need to concentrate for? They're just kids. You're going to cut him into pieces and that's that."

The voices trailed off as the group headed deeper into the school grounds.

Hand on her chest, Vi hissed at Lana in the bushes, "Oh my god, we could have died!"

"Let's be glad we didn't die." Lana admitted after taking a gulp of air to breath.

"Bless, now where are we going to hide?" Vi got up and looked around.

Unsure of where the next battle would take place, Lana asked Vi on her memories. "Where exactly was the battle taking place anyway?"

Hand on her chin, Vi closed her eyes in thought. "Some decrepit building that was flooded, I think. It wasn't the gym. Or the library. I think it was tall? Like about three floors."

"Hmm...should we follow the Varia?" Lana suggested, after taking in Vi's information, "It's the best way to find the location."

"Well." Vi raised an eyebrow at Lana's suggestion. "Let's hope they don't figure out they're being followed."

At the thought of getting caught, Lana took a deep breath and heaved quietly. She nodded. "Okay let's go."

Quietly and not breathing too loudly lest they be heard, the two followed after the terrifying group to find out where the battle would be taking place.

Without Lana noticing, in her concentration to be silent as a mouse, her ring began to light up softly. Her steps became near inaudible and she managed to miss every crunchy leaf in her path.

Unfortunately for Vi, while following Lana's steps, she took a misstep and stepped on a twig.

**-SNAP-**

Vi froze in her steps. The Varia ahead of them paused and looked around their surroundings.

Lana quickly turned over to Vi whisper yelling, "Hide!"

Vi, freaking out, immediately dodged behind the nearest tree, making sure there weren't any more twigs in her path. With a determined look on her face and an idea in her head, she jumped and grabbed onto a branch, pulling herself up.

Lana took cover for the tree to the right of Vi, crouched down, and covered her mouth to prevent her breathing to be heard. It wasn't until Lana glanced down at her feet to subdue the fear within and saw the ring around her neck gleaming in a faint pale yellow glow.

"What was that?" The voice sounded like Squalo. "One of you! Go check it out."

Belphegor placed his arms behind his head in a nonchalant manner, "Nah. The prince doesn't want to go into the filthy bushes."

"You damn brat, just go into the bush or else!" Squalo sounded ready to aim his sword arm at the self-proclaimed prince.

Bel harrumphed haughtily. "Fine! Just as long as the baby goes too."

The baby, that the hidden pair remembered as Mammon, sneered. "I don't get paid enough for this."

Bel approached toward the tree Lana hid behind. Feeling her heart rate kick up, Lana tried to calm her breathing rate in hope that Bel wouldn't notice her. By the time Bel was going to peer around the tree, Lana's ring gleamed a bright pale yellow. Surprised by the sudden gleam Lana accidentally leaned lightly against the tree and as if by luck, a family of spiders that was nesting in her tree dropped right on top of Bel's head.

"Fuck!" Bel immediately backed away, trying to get rid of the spiders invading his hair and crown.

Internally, Lana thanked whatever just happened right now and noticed her ring dimming after Bel left her hiding spot alone.

Floating quickly, Mammon approached Vi's tree. Straddling a branch, Vi turned her head and reached an arm out to grab another branch. She stuck her tongue out in concentration, making sure that she wouldn't accidentally fall out.

As soon as Mammon was underneath the tree, there was a loud rustling of leaves. Lana's heart almost stopped at the thought of Vi getting caught or falling out. Suddenly, a large white owl swooped down and collided into the floating baby.

"Gwah!" Mammon, surprised by the unexpected attack, flinched back and accidentally spun into a flurry of backflips. "Aaah! Stupid owl!"

"Quit messing around and let's go, it's just some animals in the bushes!" Squalo, finally fed up with the two's antics, snapped.

As soon as their footsteps faded away, the two simultaneously let out sighs of relief.

Climbing out of her tree, Vi clutched onto her chest in disbelief. "Okay, let's never do that again. Ever."

"Yeah." Lana nodded in agreement, "Remind me if I do forget about it." She added on, "Whack me in the head if I do end up saying a stupid idea."

Vi raised an eyebrow. "Wow, blanket permission to whack you. Awesome. Let's just wait until the nerd herd arrives and follow them." She made herself comfortable in a nearby bush.

"Right." Once Lana could feel her heart rate going back to normal. She glanced at the two rings on the chain of her necklace, "Hey Vi, did you see my star ring gleaming?" Lana was pretty sure it wasn't her sky ring.

The other girl shook her head. "I didn't notice anything. I was busy fearing for my life, ya know?" Vi cocked her head to the side. "What did it do?"

"It just lit up brightly while we were hiding from Bel and Mammon. Then right when Bel approached my tree, my ring started shining a pale yellow flame and surprised me out of nowhere. Thanks to the surprise I accidentally leaned against my tree, but instead of getting noticed these spiders dropped on him. Once Bel left my tree alone, the ring stopped gleaming." Lana explained while grasping onto the star ring held on her necklace.

"Hm, I wonder what kind of power that could be." Vi mused out loud. "Bug summoning? Nightmare inducing? Traumatizing. Definitely." She nodded in agreement with herself.

"Haha very funny." Lana laughed in monotone before continuing her explanation, "I don't think stars have anything to do with summonings or something trauma related."

"Still, but that was really lucky that happened when it did." Vi leaned back and wondered about the chances of that happening, "Saved by the spiders."

Lana blinked a few times after listening to Vi's take on what just happened, 'Wait, what did you just say right now?'

"Spiders."

Exasperated look on her face, Lana shook her head and asked Vi again. 'No before that.'

Vi grinned and thought back on what she had said that Lana could have taken interest in. "Lucky?"

Finally it clicked in Lana's mind as a smile formed against her face, "Yes! That's it!"

"You're telling me spiders are your lucky stars?" Vi asked with a teasing tone.

'No!' Lana frowned at Vi for mentioning spiders, 'The spiders have nothing to do with my ring! It's the luck factor, the star flames increase my chance of luck.'

Vi shrugged carelessly. "Alright but if your ring spawns spiders again, it's officially a pattern." She tilted her head. "Or is that thrice? Once is an accident. Two is a coincidence. Three is a pattern. Or a crowd. Of bugs."

Lana hummed to think back on the properties of the other ring flames and recalled Vi's other flame ring, 'If anything I think your mist ring would be able to spawn bugs than my star flames.'

"Hey!" Shuddering at the idea, Vi denied it vehemently. "I would never. Besides I made an owl appear! Granted I shook the branch it was resting on, but still."

'Still?' Lana raised a brow at Vi.

"That owl saved my life. Thanks baby attacker." She looked up at the sky and raised a hand. "Thank the feathered saviors."

'So let me get this straight, you annoyed the owl's resting spot in order to save yourself from Mammon?' Lana pointed out.

Vi nodded. "It was either that or suffer a horrible death by baby."

'But I thought you love kids?' Lana remembered how Vi would coo at children whenever they were near a park to hang out.

"Well, yes." Vi actually quite enjoyed kids. They were just very cute. "But the Arcobaleno babies scare me."

Lana thought back to when Reborn said her name. "Understandable."

"I hope they don't take too long." Vi shivered into her coat, putting her gloves on.

Lana's expression grew to a grin as she quietly squealed, "We get to see them in real life! Especially Tsuna, yes all the yes!"

Vi gasped. "Rude, speak for yourself." She mourned the fact that she wouldn't get to see either of her baes for like three days.

The sound of teenage boys screaming startled the pair hiding in the bushes.

"It appears that they have arrived." Vi facepalmed. "Why are boys so weird?"

'Dunno.' Lana shrugged, 'Will was weird too whenever it came to Astrology, and sometimes that makes me wonder how Fauna can stand his conversations. Most of the girls he dated didn't give him a time of day.'

"Harsh." Vi winced. "Well, this Fauna should really be appreciated for listening to your bro."

Footsteps got louder and louder as the boys got closer to the girls' hiding space.

Peering out from behind the bushes, Lana and Vi got their first look at the Vongola Decimo and his guardians, minus a couple.

Gokudera was wrapped up in bandages and was being held up by Ryohei, who had a broken arm. Tsuna and Basil were talking quietly between them.

Yamamoto's face was uncharacteristically solemn as he looked down at the blade in his hands.

Unable to handle the serious mood, Ryohei spoke up. "Which building did those ladies say again?"

"Hey, watch it!" Gokudera flinched as he was jostled by the boxer boy's movements. "Those pink women said building B!"

Snapped out of his funk, Yamamoto looked at Gokudera with concern. "Really Gokudera! You shouldn't have showed up in this condition!"

Unable to meet Yamamoto in the eyes, Gokudera scoffed. "I needed to show my support anyways."

In the bushes, Vi muttered, "Like the real tsundere he is inside."

Without missing a beat, Gokudera continued. "Besides, I can't miss the match that you get killed in." He finished with a glare at the other boy.

Yamamoto only gave a laugh and a smile in response to Gokudera’s glare, “Hahaha.”

Tsuna let out a nervous breath. "You’re too relaxed, Yamamoto."

“When do you think they’re going to go?” Lana wondered, hoping that their monologue would finish up. She was happy to see Tsuna, but their conversation was taking up so much time.

Vi huffed quietly. "Well they better go quickly, my legs are starting to cramp."

“Well let's go.” The sound of Gokudera yelling in pain after tripping on his own bandages yet again could be heard by the two hiding behind the trees. “Agh!”

“Gokudera-kun?!” Tsuna exclaimed in worry after seeing Gokudera fall straight to the floor.

Ryohei laughed loudly. "Ahaha! Falling again, Gokudera?"

Reborn sighed, “He really is an idiot.”

Groaning from the ground, Gokudera got up to send a glare at Ryohei, “Stop laughing you ass and help me up!”

The boys’ squabbling got quieter as they headed farther into the campus towards the battlefield.

“We should follow them now.” Lana told Vi after seeing the main group leave.

Without either of them noticing, Reborn had stayed back in the shadows. “I see that you're here like I asked.”

Screaming internally and unable to say a word, Vi just nodded, eyes wide open in surprise.

‘ _Holy cows._ ’ Lana could feel her heart rate accelerate again thanks to Reborn’s sudden arrival, but decided to answer for both her and Vi. “Of course.”  

“I wanted you to see that the power of the Vongola family is not to be trifled with.” Reborn tipped his hat at them and gestured in the direction of the boys. “They may look like that, but they have a lot of potential. You should think twice if you had any plans to challenge us.”

“You seem to take pride on them.” Lana replied after listening to Reborn’s words regarding the group.

Raising a brow, Vi held her hands up in a placating gesture. “We don’t have any malicious intent towards the Vongola. We’re very neutral parties in this.”

Lana then added onto Vi’s statement, “If anything, we’d rather be your allies.”

Reborn got a considering look in his eyes. “Hm. Well. We’ll see about your situation after we finish dealing with our internal matter. I invited you here today to observe our strength. But if it comes down to it, I might ask you two for a favor. If you are willing to help, we can consider that the beginning of a formal alliance.”

“Well, it would depend on the favor you asked of us, but I tentatively accept your offer.” Vi said after a moment of silence. “Today is still an observation period, of course. I’d like to know what I’m getting into.”

“So.” Lana began as Reborn stared directly at the both of them, “What are your terms on this favor?”

“I have a bad feeling about the next couple of days. I will call in a favor if I believe the Vongola alone will not be able to handle it.” Reborn stated.

“Wait.” Vi interrupted. She flinched when Reborn looked at her for cutting in, but continued. “What makes you think we’ll be able to handle something that the Vongola can’t?”

Staring at Vi until she got nervous, Reborn then nodded. “I see. What I meant was that you would be an additional force, a backup if you will. I wouldn’t call you to fight our battles for us, only ask you for assistance in fights we can’t withstand alone.”

“I see.” Lana noted Reborn’s favor, “So the favor you’re regarding about is in case your group becomes outnumbered by a certain point in time.”

“Or overwhelmed. Or if your enemy reveals a secret weapon. Or if they power up at the eleventh hour.” Vi added. “What? There’s a lot of possible events that could happen, in which case you would call in a favor. So we’re basically your contingency plan? A big what-if?”

Reborn looked vaguely amused at the amount of words. “I suppose you could call it that. So do you still accept, knowing all of the terms and conditions now?”

Lana made a look of uncertainty before glancing over to Vi, “What do you think?”

Vi pursed her lips. “Yes. I think it’s a good deal. If he calls in the favor, we’ve got an alliance. If he doesn’t, that’s fine. We can talk allies on a later date.”

“Hm, it isn’t a bad favor.” Lana admitted before voicing her thoughts about the favor to Vi, “Does this mean we’re both in agreement?”

“Yep.” Vi nodded, then turned to Reborn. “We accept your terms.”

Reborn grinned. “Excellent. The battle tonight is taking place in building B. There’s a building adjacent from it with a good view. You should stay away from the roof.”

Before he left to catch up with the boys, Reborn turned and smirked at the girls. “By the way, I heard you had a nice first day of school. We’ll be seeing more of each other then. Lana and Vi.” He left the two girls, who were frozen in shock.

“Well Reborn literally just answered that he’s going to continue keeping the promise he mentioned on his note accordingly.”Lana deadpanned, unsure of what to say anything

Vi let out a deep breath and took in a couple of short gasps. “Oh my god, I’m surprised I didn’t go into cardiac arrest just now. That was terrifying.” She rummaged through her bag. “Chocolate. Yes. Good. The calming chocolate bar. Do you want one? I have milk, dark, and white.” Vi held up three bars to Lana.

“The milk chocolate.” Lana asked and didn’t forget to say. “Thank you for the sugar. I think I became sugar deprived after listening to Reborn.”

“I think my heart climbed into my throat after listening to Reborn.” Vi muttered, biting into a dark chocolate bar. “Well, at least we’ve got a sort of tentative alliance. Maybe. If he calls on us. How would he even call on us for a favor?”

“I’m pretty sure Reborn has his own way of summoning us without even batting an eye.” Lana assumed while taking a bite on her milk chocolate bar.

Vi grimaced at the thought. “That’s great,” she said sarcastically. “Just what we need. Another person watching over us. At least we don’t live in their house. Oh!” Digging in her bag again, she pulled out the map of the school grounds from earlier today. “Building B…Ah! Here. So then this is the one adjacent. I wonder why he said not the roof? Oh yeah, Hibari. Hm, well. Hey, Lana! Let’s get in the building soon before the battle starts.” She finished off her chocolate bar in three quick big bites.

“Right.” Taking one finishing bite on her chocolate bar, Lana followed after Vi in pursuit of watching tonight’s battle.

Entering the building, Lana and Vi found a classroom with a good view of the adjacent building.

“Whoa, that monitor is huge. I mean, it looked big in the manga, but seriously? I can’t believe that whole building is flooded.” Wide eyed, Vi’s mouth was open in awe at the battlefield before them.

“I’m starting to wonder how much time the Cervello put in getting it up there in the first place.” Lana deadpanned. She did recall their unseen strength when they were training in the grounds, but to think they placed a giant monitor on the side of the building, it sounded insane.

The battle of the rain was about to begin. The tension in the air could be split with a knife—or in this case, a sword.

A loud female voice could be heard through the closed windows. “Then for the ring of rain, Superbi Squalo versus Yamamoto Takeshi. Begin the match!”

Vi went up to a window and pulled it open. “Well, hopefully it all plays out like canon and we don’t have to fix anything.”

“Tell me if it really is playing out to canon.” Lana reminded Vi lightly about her small bits of memories regarding the Varia arc. She frowned in frustration, “If only my memories about this arc returned.”

Vi thought back on the rain battle in the manga. “Well, shark boy tries to kill the yam, but the sweet potato unlocks his sword power. He levels up. Gets cut though. I think, loses feeling in an arm?”

“Shark boy? Sweet potato?” Lana found the nicknames Vi unbelievable, but persisted in listening to Vi’s explanation.

Continuing as if there was no interruption, Vi rambled on. “All sliced up like a Thanksgiving turkey. Gets the final 8th stance. He makes a new 9th stance. Very emotional.”

 _‘I feel like Vi is literally going all out on the codenames._ ’ Lana internally laughed.

“And then shark boy gets eaten by a shark.” Vi finished. “And that’s the end of The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D.”

“...I’m pretty sure Sharkboy didn’t get eaten by a shark by the end of the movie, but if you say so in regards to the actual battle then that’s pretty wild.” Lana simply accepted Vi’s explanation of the current battle taking place, since she had no valid memories to prove whether Vi’s are wrong.

Vi looked at Lana with concern. “I still think it’s odd that you don’t remember much of this. Like, yeah it was a while ago, but to what extent does the memory blank go?”

Lana sent her gaze over to her lap, and wore a frown. “That’s what’s bugging me a lot.” She returned Vi with a look of frustration, “It’s like the whole story of Katekyo Hitman Reborn just became a blur in my mind. Except for the Daily Life and Kokuyo arcs, this one only has memories from what I’m deeming was the start of the Varia arc.”

"Huh. Now that I think about it, I don't really remember what happens after this arc. It feels fuzzy in my brain. Like those fuzzy wool socks. Like a baby duck. Like our fourth grade teacher’s tarantula.”

“You remembered the tarantula very well though.” Lana replied with a smile.

Vi blinked in surprise. “I brought carrot sticks for it. Of course I remember it.”

“Still.” Lana tilted her head as she recalled the tarantula that sat in the glass tank of their fourth grade classroom, “How in the world did that tarantula enjoy carrot sticks? I’ve never seen it eat the carrots before and even during rainy day schedule for lunchtime.”

Bemused, Vi copied Lana and tilted her head. “Well yeah. The carrot sticks were for the crickets. That the tarantula ate.”

“Wow that’s,” Lana slightly paled at Vi’s revelation. “Morbid. Feeding the food you eat.”

“A little, I suppose. The tarantula freaked me out though.” Vi shuddered at the memory. “Spiders in general just creep me out. Who keeps spiders as pets honestly?”

Lana decided to add on a point, “Technically speaking those spiders help by getting rid of the flies in your house by using their webs.”

Vi put her head in her hands and wailed. “They also freak me out by climbing in my bathtub and hiding in my carpet. And showing up in my bed while I’m trying to sleep! I thought it was the blanket! But it was not! It was death!”

“Well it’s not like any of us are going to have spiders as a pet.” Lana concluded in affirmation, “That’s a for sure. I’m more of a dog person anyways.”

“So a werewolf.”

“No.” Lana sent Vi a deadpan, “I’m not into that sort of supernatural stuff.”

Grinning behind her hand,Vi said, “But you said dog person. A werewolf is a dog person.”

“Vi, I meant as a dog lover not being a werewolf.” Lana argued, standing her ground while crossing her arms with huff.

“But if you’re a dog person, then you’re a dog-slash-person.” Vi countered. “Why don’t people just say that they like dogs? Why do they have to say dog person? What’s the logic behind that? And why do people also say people person? What does that even mean?” She threw her hands in the air.

Lana groaned in frustration as she face palmed her forehead.

While the two were talking, the battle was playing out exactly as Vi recalled.

They looked back to the screen when they heard screams of terror.

“Aah!!”

“An artificial hand?!”

Yamamoto seemed to have been stabbed by Squalo’s fake hand sword, but at the last minute, a wave of water came crashing down on him. Squalo’s eyes widened in shock as Yamamoto appeared behind him, sword in position. Not fast enough to dodge the blow, Squalo was knocked out by Yamamoto, who caught the other half of the ring as Squalo fell to the ground.

The Vongola guardians watched as Yamamoto held up the completed rain ring while wearing a grin on his face. “I got it!”

“He did it!” Basil exclaimed in surprise while Tsuna smiled at the screen, glad that Yamamoto came out alive from the battle. “Yamamoto.”

Then out of nowhere a sharp laughter entered the air as the two glanced over to see that the leader of the Varia in his chair. Laughing like there was no tomorrow, “You suck! You lost, you piece of trash!”

Lana raising a brow at Xanxus, turned over to Vi to ask. “Why is he laughing out of nowhere?”

“Wow harsh. Just abandoning your poor wife.” Vi clucked her tongue. “After all he’s done for you.”

“Wife?” Lana tilted her head in confusion, trying to make sense of who Vi meant until it slowly clicked. “Oh. Squalo.”

A Cervello suddenly stopped them. “Please wait. It’s too dangerous to enter the aquarion right now. Since the predetermined water depth has been reached, a vicious sea creature has been released.”

“No way!!” Tsuna yelled in surprise.

On the screen, Yamamoto looked around in confusion. “Wait. What are we going to do with Squalo?”

“Mr. Squalo was the one who lost. So we cannot guarantee his life,” the Cervello responded.

Yamamoto nodded and mumbled something to himself. To everyone’s surprise, he then leaned down, put Squalo’s arm around his shoulders, and propped him up.

Lana glanced again at Vi with a questioning look. “So does he end up saving him or not?”

“Nope.” Vi shook her head. “No spoilers. You gotta watch.”

“Whaaaaaat?” Lana puffed her cheeks out, “At least let me know what’s going to happen next!” Then grumbled about how it was unfair that Vi remembered most of this arc.

Before long, the shark had appeared, attracted by the blood from the two bleeding swordsmen. It rammed against a pillar, knocking them to the floor below.

Upon seeing the vicious shark on the giant screen, Lana screamed while clamping her hands to her mouth to hide it, “Is that a shark?! What in the world is happening right now Vi!”

Vi hummed the Jaws theme and continued watching the scene in front of them.

On the screen, Squalo kicked Yamamoto off of him and the shark sped up towards the platform Squalo was on.

“Ohmygawd.” Lana gasped in shock as she slowly removed her mouth. “Is he literally sacrificing himself?!”

“Kid… Your sword skills aren’t bad.” Squalo looked at Yamamoto. “You just need to throw away that unnecessary kindness.”

In a flash, the shark lunged up, jaws wide open, gaping maw hungering for blood, grabbed Squalo and pulled him under in one swift action.

“Squalo!!!” Yamamoto yelled, as the air bubbles disappeared and a pool of blood spread in the water.

Lana shrieked to herself while pleading to Vi, “Please tell me he’s not dead. Please let him have a disney princess ending where he is actually alive and not dead yet.”

“Spoilers.” Vi deadpanned. “But you know what they say. If it looks like it’s dead, swims like it’s dead, and quacks like it’s dead, it’s probably dead.”

“Bhahaha!” Xanxus roared with even more laughter, “That piece of trash’s last moment was to become fish food!”

“The scramble battle for the ring of rain was won by Yamamoto Takeshi.” The Cervello announced on screen, “Now I shall announce the next cards of the battle.”

Vi perked up at that last sentence. “Lana, Lana!”

“What?” Lana still seemed pretty pale from the revelation of Squalo being dead, especially with the bravado he put on when the Varia entered school grounds not too long ago.

The Cervello declared. “Tomorrow night’s battle is between the guardians of mist.”

Vi turned to Lana with a huge grin. “Ohohoho~”

“Really?” Lana sent Vi a blank look.

“I am looking forward to the battle, if you can’t tell.” Vi said with a huge grin on her face.

“Alright well, we have to wait for the Vongola to leave before we can leave.”

Lana and Vi ducked down as the Vongola walked past the classroom they were hiding in. The boys were speaking loud enough that the girls could overhear them.

Tsuna sounded indignant as he cried, “So why can’t you tell me about the mist guardian?”

“You’ll find out tomorrow, dame-Tsuna. Concentrate on your own battle.” Reborn scolded his impatient student.

Gokudera butted in with his thoughts. “Well if we don’t win tomorrow’s battle, the Tenth won’t even get a chance to fight!”

Vague as always, Reborn only told them, “Trust in Tsuna’s father’s decisions.”

Seeing that the Vongola and the Varia had both left the area, the two decided to leave the building as quietly as possible to avoid getting spotted by a certain skylark. By the time they reach the last window of the hallway leading to the school grounds, another being was standing right there at the entrance.

Lana clamped her mouth shut using her hands to cover her loud scream, “Holy cow!”

Repressing the urge to scream again, Vi narrowed her eyes at the shadow. “Didn’t you leave? Good god!”

Reborn stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself. In fact, there was a smirk on his face when he glanced up at the two. “So what did you think about that battle?”

Lana squeaked out her question, while trying to hide the fact that she knew of Squalo.  “Did the man on the screen really die?”

Reborn looked down. “It would appear so, wouldn’t it? Things like that are only natural in this line of work. Your reaction tells me that you’re not used to this part of the mafia. How exactly is it that you came into this field?”

Defensive, Vi narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think that’s any of your business, is it? We’re not obligated to share anything without getting something in return.”

“Interesting. Alright, I’ll leave that subject alone. For now.” He reluctantly let their odd behavior go and changed the subject. “Meanwhile, there’s going to be another battle tomorrow featuring our mist guardian. You should come see it.”

Composing herself a bit better, Lana answered Reborn’s mention regarding the mist battle. “As long as my friend agrees to it, then we will.”

Somewhat dubious of the hitman’s questioning, Vi warily responded, “Well, it depends. Was that a suggestion or a demand?”

“An invitation. I’m sure the match tomorrow will end up being quite the spectacle. And a solid display of the strength of our guardians.” Reborn nodded conclusively. “Well, it doesn’t matter to me. Feel free to show up tomorrow. I trust you’ll be able to find the location on your own.”

“Yes.” Lana replied simply.

Vi pursed her lips. “We’ll be there.”

“Good. ” Reborn smiled smugly and made a move to leave them alone. “You should be quick in getting home. There’s one left lurking these halls right now.” He walked out of the building, leaving the two girls confused at his last statement.

“Cryptic as always.” Vi muttered under her breath as she held the door open for Lana. “What does that even mean?”

“Did we forget something?” Lana mumbled out, trying to think of what Reborn meant.

Suddenly, the two girls heard the distinctive sound of birdsong.

Vi turned in circles, confused at the noise. “What the hell, it’s like 10pm. What kind of bird is screaming this late?”

“Midori tanabiku Namimori no~”

Lana immediately paled upon recognizing the cute singing, “That’s no ordinary screaming. That’s the song of the reaper heading toward us.” Lana glanced at Vi whisper yelling, “Start running for your life now.”

“Holy fuck, we’re going to die.” Vi’s eyes widened when she heard the iconic Hibird. She quickly shut the door behind her and sprinted after Lana.

“We're not having an early meeting with him! Not now, this is the worst timing of them all!” Lana grumbled in between as she ran in the direction of their house. “Gawd he has the worst timing out of all the characters!”

Vi cursed out the discipline committee leader in between breaths. “Stupid. Asshole. Why. Oh. My. God! Sadist. Fuck! Dying!”

They continued running home without looking back, in fear of seeing the cloud guardian behind them. By the time they reached the gate, Lana almost keeled over on the gate completely exhausted. Vi was gasping for air leaning on the wall next to her.

“I can’t believe we have to see him starting tomorrow.” Lana huffed while trying to maintain her breathing.

Vi waved her hand. “It’s good. I have a plan. I might get punched in the face, but it’s still a good plan.”

“Why do I get the feeling that your plan might almost get us killed by him?” Lana muttered to herself as a sudden chill crept against her back.

“Because Hibari is an uncontrollable variable. He’s impossible to calculate for. A wild missile.” Vi frowned.

The front door opened as they passed through the gate. Tsunomichi, cat in his arms, stood in the doorway with the porch light on. “I see you’ve gotten home safely!”

“Uh, kind of?” Lana could still hear her heart pounding due to so much adrenaline rushing through at the last minute. “No, not really. I think we just  barely escaped an unavoidable battle.”

“Ah, why don’t you come in now. It’s freezing outside. There’s hot chocolate in the kitchen,” said Tsunomichi, quickly ushering them into the house.

Vi shivered and passed through the entryway. “I am so cold. I don’t even understand how you can deal with this. I am suffering so much.” She headed into the kitchen.

“Thank you very much, Tsunomichi.” Lana thanked the caretaker, “You’ve really done a lot for us despite being so terrified of Vi. Did you perhaps finally got used to her nature?”

“Oh dear heavens no! But I must admit that it’s nice to take care of others.” Tsunomichi smiled and closed the door to keep out the cold air.

“I see.” Lana seemed content with Tsunomichi’s answer and excused herself to go get some hot chocolate too.

A loud shout of “Thanks!” sounded from the kitchen as Lana reminded Vi to be grateful to their caretaker.

“Ah, how easily I’ve grown fond of them.” Tsunomichi sighed, petting Milk slowly. “Only makes it harder when I think of what’s going to happen to them.”

In the kitchen, the duo drank their hot chocolate peacefully, not knowing of what lay in store for them.

“So what exactly do you think is going to happen tomorrow?” Lana pondered at the thought for a bit.

“Same thing as today, except maybe Hibari will make an appearance,” Vi guessed, sipping at her drink.

“Hibari Kyoya and Sasagawa Kyoko are going to school tomorrow?” Lana groaned remembering what took place earlier, “I’m absolutely not looking forward to that...Hibari sending us the death glares…and Miss Sunshine’s smileys at all. I mean I don’t hate her, just wish she toned down the smiles and sparkles everywhere and hope that the personification of the bringer of death doesn’t cross paths with us at all.”

“Did you count them all? How many could there possibly have been?” Vi asked, curious about exactly how cheery Sasagawa Kyoko was.

“Oh believe me, I’ve been keeping count since school ended. Um…let’s see.” Lana recalled from today’s classes, “Okay so first time we met it started out with only three. Not too much trouble, but at least an attempt at being friendly to me. However, when second period happened, I noticed that the number of smileys increased from three to six. At first I thought I was seeing things since Kyoko doesn’t seem like the type to enforce her friendless on you. Moving on to the next class, guess what…more smileys in her other book! Only this time it went to nine smileys, which made me internally panic at the sight of it. I’ve never seen anyone so keen on befriending me, especially Kyoko out of all the characters in KHR. Anyways, my paranoia increased when the smileys during our fourth class when the smiley increments went from three to nine. There were now eighteen! Eighteen smileys scrawled from top to bottom edge of the book! Who has the time to draw smileys that fast?! Then the fifth class it resumed again in increments of nine, which led to twenty-seven! Last but not least…” Lana paused for a moment, and finished her count in a deadpan tone, “Thirty-three smileys. Thirty-three smileys. She drew thirty-three smileys on her last book. Just to get my attention on wanting to become friends.”

“Wow, Lana, take a breather.” Vi added more hot chocolate to Lana’s cup. “Calm down. Why does she keep drawing them though?”

Lana took another sip of her mug, “How should I know? I feel that if I draw them, I’ll be slapped with more sparkles.”

“That sounds absolutely hilarious.” Vi snickered. “The only way to fight it is with more glitter. Bring a tube of sparkles with you and just…” She paused and waved her hands dramatically. “Ya know.”

“What? Do you expect me to just drop a glitter bomb in her mailbox?” Lana frowned upon the idea of delivering one, but then another thought came into mind. “Actually Ryohei probably wouldn’t like that, but Kyoko totally would.”

“Ha! She’d probably love one of those and thank you the next day!” Vi laughed.

Lana slammed her face onto the countertop, crying in frustration. “Why?” Turning her head to look at Vi from the side of the countertop Lana then asked, “What about the guy sitting next to you?”

“He’s cute, I guess? But in a little brother kind of way.” She took another sip of her drink, remembering what he looked like. “So his name is Sakamoto Hideki and he’s our class rep. Also I’m in the works of getting his eternal love and affection which basically gets me immunity for the year.”

“Eternal love and affection? Isn’t that like you’re using him on purpose to avoid getting in trouble?” Lana mentioned, keeping her cheek against the cool surface of the countertop.

“Well,” Vi shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far. I’m just giving him attention so he’s more partial towards me. Like watering a plant so it gives you flowers.”

“That’s an odd analogy to put on the class representative.” Instantly Lana thought of a plant with a small sign labelled Sakamoto, but then decided not to think further once a face appeared on the plant.

“In this case, I’ve found the plant with the most potential, so I can get the best squash and win the county fair.” She nodded decisively. “I want my blue ribbon. Which is a metaphor for an in with the student council. And then student council president. And then, the world!” She ended her spiel with maniacal laughter.

“...First off, this isn’t our world.” Lana pointed off immediately, “Second of all, if you end becoming student council president, doesn’t that mean you’re going to have to answer to Hibari most of the time? He isn’t the disciplinary prefect for nothing.”

“I’m working on that part of Plan DPAC,” Vi announced, pronouncing her new acronym as ‘depack’. “It’s a work in progress.”

“What is the full name for that acronym?” Lana asked, kind of worried of what would transpire.

With a pleased face, Vi cleared her throat. "Dismantle the Patriarchy, Assume Control. I will be a kind and just ruler.”

“Not a dictator?” Lana eyed Vi.

Vi shook her head, eyes looking innocent, but with a sly grin. “No, of course not. No dick.”

Lana was going to say that was not what she meant, but she didn’t want to press further onto the subject, Lana could feel herself fatigued from all of the events that happened throughout today.

“Alright.” Lana finished getting up from her spot and went to wash her mug, “It’s time for sleep.”

Vi yawned, raising her arms over her head. “You go up ahead, I’m going to find Milk.” She placed her cup in the sink and slowly plodded out of the kitchen. “Nya? Nya!”

Once Lana finished washing the mugs and placed them into the dish dryer, she went up the stairs straight for her room. Taking another set pajamas, only this time it was a plain white t-shirt and a fluffy blue pajama bottoms. Plugging her phone into the charger, Lana then removed her necklace holding her rings into her school bag for safe keeping. Grabbing a towel from her closet, she went straight into the bathroom to take a quick shower. After finishing her shower, Lana changed into her pajamas.

Vi found the cat in the living room, in a shiny new cat bed. The cat was already asleep and she would feel bad for waking it up, so she left it sleeping and placed a small blanket over it.

She headed up the stairs and went into her room, yawning the whole time. She removed her scarf and coat, placing them back into the closet. After taking all the candy out and placing them back into a bowl, she took her phone and plugged it into the wall. Putting her rings in her jewelry box on her desk, she carefully made sure they were intact. Grabbing her pjs, she headed to the bathroom just as Lana was finished changing.

“The shower is open if you need to, Vi.” Lana stated taking the hair dryer while heading back into her room to put away her laundry.

“Ya thanks, I’ll take you up on that,” Vi mumbled, walking into the shower door. “Ow.”

“You’re welcome,” Lana spoke before closing the door to her room. Once she dried her hair completely using the towel, Lana placed her clothes into the laundry basket she started drying her hair. By the time she finished, Lana went straight back into the bathroom after unplugging the hair dryer to see Vi finished with her shower. Lana held out the hair dryer for Vi to use.

“Nya thank.” Vi murmured under her breath, taking the hair dryer into her room.

“Yeah.” Grabbing her cup, Lana proceeded to brush and rinse her teeth. At that point, Lana returned her cup back to her side of the sink for bed, “Good night Vi.”

After drying her hair, Vi dawdled back into the bathroom, dragging the hair dryer behind her. “Night!”

Closing the door behind her, Lana made sure she had everything for class the next day. Books received from school by the end of the day were already packed inside her bag. Phone charging on the wall. Rings chained on necklace. Pens, pencils, and an empty notebook leftover from studies back in her world. Laptop is off.

“Now to bed.” Lana set her alarm clock for the same time, and went straight to sleep in the comforts of her bed.

Vi brushed her teeth, already half asleep, toothpaste dripping out of her mouth. Flossing and mouthwash done with, she dragged herself back to her room, turned her alarm on, and passed out on the bed. She was soon overtaken by sleep.

Vi opened her eyes to the sound of classical music. She was standing in a large open space with a white tile flooring stretching to what seemed to be eternity. “Where the hell is this?” Gazing into the distance, the horizon seemed to be hazy. Looking around, the space was completely unoccupied apart from herself. Nearby, there was a white circular table with several books on it. Stepping forward to take a closer look, she realized there were nine books of varying size arranged in a circle.

There were three specific books that caught her attention, because they were distinctly unlocked. Two were a bit worn through, like they had been read multiple times in the past. One was pretty normal looking, with a purple bookmark about midway through. On the cover of these three books was gold script in her handwriting. The first two were labeled ‘ _Daily_ _Life_ ’ and ‘ _Kokuyo_ ’ respectively. The third was was labeled ‘ _Varia_ ’. The remaining six were shiny and new, but wrapped tightly in a single silver chain, making them impossible to open. These six had no titles and were distinctly unlabeled.

Looking around the space, it seemed vaguely familiar to her.

“Am I dreaming right now?” She wondered out loud.

She spotted a chair next to the table and took a seat.

Picking up the first book labeled ' _Daily Life_ ', she flipped through it quickly, trying to skim. The book seemed to be a complete transcript of everything that occurred in the Daily Life arc. As she flipped through the pages, lines in the book began rising off of the page as well as what seemed to be snapshots from the manga floating in the air around the book.

"Whoa. That’s definitely not normal.”

She watched as scenes played out and her memories resettled themselves in her mind.

Mechanically flipping through the many pages, she quickly reached the end of that book and observed as the words and pictures sank back into the pages.

“Well, that was certainly an experience.”

Mumbling to herself, she turned to face the book that said ‘ _Kokuyo_ ’. “On one hand, I get to see the bae. On the other hand, the bae gets punched in the face and taken to jail.”

Nevertheless, she was curious as to whether the contents in the book would be the same as what she remembered. Eyes brightening up as she got an idea, she placed the book on the table.

Opening the book to the first page, she estimated the number of pages. “Okay. Let’s see…” Sticking her tongue out in concentration, she quickly flipped multiple pages at once, trying to get through a chapter per flip.

Multiple scenes started playing in the air, showing the events of the Kokuyo arc. To the left showed the beginnings of the arc, with students at Nami middle getting beat up and Gokudera fighting Chikusa. In front of Vi were multiple scenes around the middle, including Yamamoto fighting Ken, Bianchi fighting M.M, Birds being creepy, and Tsuna fighting Lancia. To the right was the finale of the arc showing the battle between Tsuna and Mukuro, where Tsuna unlocked Hyper Dying Will Mode and Mukuro getting punched in the face. Vi winced at the sight. “Ow, flames to the face.”

Finished with the Kokuyo arc, she turned to the third unlocked book. The ‘ _Varia_ ’ book.

“So the current arc.” She flipped the book open and began turned the pages rapidly to get to their current place in time.

Viewing the remaining ring battles in fast forward while catching words in the air like ‘ _Mammon_ ’, ‘ _Ninth_ ’, ‘ _Mosca_ ’ rekindled her memories of the entire arc, from the beginning when Squalo chased Basil to Japan to the end when they celebrated both the return of Lambo from the hospital and the end of the so called “sumo match”.

“This is unbelievable. How did I forget all of this?” Staring at all the books in amazement, she realized something.

“Wait, does that mean there’s six arcs I can’t remember? Why are they locked up like this?” She looked down at the remaining locked books in anger, trying to will them open.

She grabbed the one closest to her and read the cover. The title was unclear and kind of blurry, but if she squinted and tilted her head at a specific angle, Vi could almost make out a faint ' _Future_ ' on the cover.

“There’s a future arc? Why can’t I remember it?” She slammed the book against the table, hoping for something to happen.

“What the hell?! Were my memories sealed or something? How in the world—Checkerface!” Vi snarled the name out in realization.

Her eyes opened as her alarm sounded and her arm automatically swung to the side and knocked the alarm off the table. The room was dimly lit with the faint glow of the morning sun. “What the heck was that dream? Oh my god, I’m going to murder Checkerface.”

* * *

Lana opened her eyes to the sound of a sharp whistle and the steady beat of rolling wheels. She found her surroundings completely unfamiliar to her compared to the usual eternal escalator or running around in a monster doll house dreams.

“Where am I?” Lana mumbled out as she raised both of her hands to rub her eyes. Blinking out the watery eye sensation she’d get from rubbing her eyes out too much, the girl began to realize that the scenery was moving. Completely opening her eyes wide, Lana glanced around the area to get a full scan of where in the world she was at. Her surroundings seemed to be an old passenger car of a train. There were a total of nine tables in the center of the walkway, each holding up a small black wooden treasure chest tightly bound by a padded lock and chains. Other than those, there were only four pale green sofas, an entry way leading to a latter part of the car, a vintage looking carpet covering the entire floor of the passenger car, and finally a few windows with curtains the same color as the sofas. Slowly getting up from the comfy sofa, Lana glanced around to see if there were anyone else.

Putting her hands around her mouth making a makeshift hand horn, Lana called out, projecting her voice, “Hello? Is anyone here?”

But there was no response. The only sounds she could hear were the train’s wheels and the train’s whistle, echoing quietly in the distance. Going over to the closest window behind her, Lana tried to open the pale green curtains to see where in the world she was. Upon parting the curtains, Lana flinched back at what she saw.

“I-is this really?” Lana sputtered out in shock as she removed her hand from the curtain. ‘ _The sky?!_ ’ She exclaimed backing away in a few steps out of panic.

Grabbing onto the arm of the sofa, Lana started hyperventilating. Her eyes wide as she attempted to calm herself down by muttering, “Breathe in. Breathe out,” in a high paced tone. When she calmed down, Lana mumbled to herself trying think of what last happened. ‘ _Let’s see. I recall going to bed not too long ago, but how in the world did I get in here? There’s no train stations according to the Namimori map we received, plus Reborn expected us tomorrow night which means he wouldn’t be the one to place me in such a predicament._ ’

' _Maybe this is a dream? Unless this has something to do with Checkerface.’_ Shaking her head, Lana then decided to recline pinching herself for now since she was slightly cautious of whether she’ll wake up immediately before finding any clues.

Raising her head up, Lana’s focus zeroed in on the chests sitting on the nine tables. The treasure chests were all uniform due to their seemingly similar appearance in shape and size. Although what piqued her interest were three in particular. Moving closer to the three treasure chests on her left, Lana came up to the first chest sitting on the farthest end. Looking at the treasure chest’s cover revealed golden etchings, with the words ‘ _Daily Life_ ’ in cursive handwriting.

“Daily Life?” Lana eyed the treasure chest for few minutes, wondering about the meaning behind the words. She decided to examine the padlock. Holding the lock in her hand, Lana noticed that it felt crusted along the backside as if there were something brittle on it. Upon turning the lock over, she remarked in surprise, “The back is practically rusted over!”

Turning the padlock back around to examine the keyhole more closely, Lana’s eyes widened at what she saw.

“Holy…” The once solid iron padlock had rusted completely while she was examining it, and without further ado, shattered into multiple pieces. Almost simultaneously, a light began shining, causing Lana to shield her eyes with her arms, “Fudge!”

'I _hope I didn’t trigger something dangerous!’_ Lana thought as the light started to dim, revealing the box’s cover completely wide open. Not a single chain or padlock in sight to keep the box bound.

“Okay?” Lowering her arms down, Lana peered over the box to see what was inside it. She raised a brow upon what she saw. An odd pile of photographs. Slowly reaching into the box, the girl retrieved the top picture. After taking a quick glance at the picture, she returned the photo back to its respective box. It was Tsuna in Dying Will Mode confessing to Kyoko. Lana silently gripped her hand closer to her stomach. A churning sensation went down her gut as her eyes trailed over to the second box.

'If _this box is the daily life arc…then the second box is Kokuyo, I believe._ '

Heading over to the next one, Lana opened it the same way as she did the previous one from before. As she reached out into the box to reveal more photos revolving around Tsuna’s group progressing through Kokuyo Land in order to defeat Mukuro.The final photograph in the Kokuyo treasure chest was none other than Tsuna slamming his enflamed glove into Mukuro’s face. Placing the photos back into the chest, Lana muttered to herself in fear. “If I tell Vi about this photograph, she is going to strangle me.”

Gulping at the thought of how she might die by Vi’s hands, Lana slowly glanced over to the third chest. Lana made way over to the next one to find the same cursive gold writing on the treasure except the title was none other than the current arc she and her friends. ‘ _Varia_.’ As previously done, Lana immediately opened the treasure chest hoping to receive the missing blanks surrounding the upcoming battles.“Here it is.” She breathed out in relief as she lifted each photograph. “Now…if this is the Mist battle, then the next one is gonna be the Cloud battle.” Though Lana felt another bead of sweat roll down her face as she continued to stare at a explicit image of a rather large amount of explosions happening in those chapters swirled throughout her mind, “We’re definitely not going to this battle.”

Lana shook her head in horror, “I don’t want any of us to get hit.”

Shuffling through the next set of photos revealed pictures of the final battle, including Gokudera saving Lambo from Levi’s parabolas. She sighed, finding a reason as to why she couldn’t fully hate him. Scratch that. Maybe that scene only took off one percent of her full on hate for the squid, but Lana wasn’t sure if the other treasure chests had either more good squid acts or scenes of where he was being a giant prick to everyone. Flipping to the end of the Varia arc showed Lancia handing Tsuna his ring out of gratitude for saving him during the Kokuyo arc.

“Okay.” Lana confirmed as the scenes came together in her mind, “Everything is finally making more sense now.” Shifting her gaze over to the remaining six treasure chests on the right, Lana proceeded to see if she can open the next one. The first one labeled as _‘Future’_.

‘ _There was a future arc?_ ’ Lana raised a brow as she continued to stare at said treasure chest. Curious of the what the chest held, Lana opened the treasure chest in hopes that it would shed some vital information of the arc after the Varia. Unfortunately for Lana the lock this time wouldn’t open causing her to raise a brow at the item. “It looks like I can’t open this.” Moving the treasure chest around, it seemed like there was no way of prying it open. There was no opening or an implement on board the train. “I don’t think I can look further into the next arc. That means six treasure chests left.” Or six unknown arcs that are going to happen before the end of the game. 

But she wondered to herself a little interested of what would occur in the next arc, “Maybe we get to see the future versions of the Vongola?”

A sudden thought came into Lana’s mind. ‘ _Maybe it has something to do with the Ten Years Later Bazooka?’_ Then another except this time it was about a certain someone. ‘ _Wait does that mean we’ll get to see the ten years later version of Tsuna?!’_ Lana blushed at the thought of a twenty-four year old Sawada Tsunayoshi. ' _O_ _h man I’m gonna die if we do end up meeting the future version of him.’_

Enough with her internal fangirling, Lana decided that it was high time for her to wake up. She can’t get any more clues seeing that the treasure chest isn’t going to open for her. Lana then placed a hand against her arm and gave herself a hard pinch. The next thing Lana knew was finding herself in bed, minutes before the alarm was going to ring. “That was quite a journey.”


	6. Did You Mist Me?

Vi got up slowly, stretching her muscles. As soon as Lana got downstairs for breakfast, Vi would have to tell the other girl about her dream. She had set her alarm to go off earlier last night so she would have some time to prepare for school that day. But before her preparations, she grabbed her glasses and headed into the bathroom to freshen up. Brushing her teeth, combing her hair, straightening her bangs all without making too much noise to wake Lana up. After she was done washing up, she went back into her room to prepare for classes.

Taking out the textbooks they had received after school, she carefully organized them in her book bag. As an afterthought, she took her eraser out of her pencil case. Grabbing the student handbook from the packet the principal gave them yesterday, she quickly rifled through it with a pencil, found what she was looking for, scratched a couple of notes in the margins, and put it into her book bag.

Picking up her uniform, she wondered if she should iron it a little before putting it on. "Nah, too much work." She quickly put it on, not worrying about the wrinkles. White blouse first, then plain grey skirt, pop on the weird sweater vest, some black thigh highs and the odd red bow tie. She smirked as she grabbed a grey knit scarf from her closet and the grey gloves from a drawer. Finishing her outfit with her rings and a silver watch, she headed downstairs to get breakfast.

Forgetting about the alarm ringing, Lana slapped her hand to shut off the buzzer, "Morning again." Shuffling out of her bed, the girl grabbed a comb to straighten her hair out while getting rid of stray hair strands. Finishing her hair, the girl made grabbed her folded uniform sitting on one of the cushions by her coffee table. Changing to her uniform, like the previous day, Lana headed over to the laundry basket to put away her pajamas. However before she headed into the bathroom to wash her face, Lana stifled a yawn trying to keep herself awake; otherwise she'd drop to the floor to continue sleeping. Going into the bathroom, Lana's pupils constricted at the brightness of the room. Ignoring it, she moved over to the sink to wash her face. Pat drying her face with a face towel, Lana proceeded to brush her teeth and then rinse out the toothpaste.

By the time she finished her daily routine in the bathroom, Lana returned to the room to unplug her cellphone to place it inside her messenger bag. Everything else she packed in the day before sat in her bag already, now all that's left for Lana is to fold her bed sheets. "And…there." Lana muttered, fixing the bed to how it should resemble before she leaves the house. Or else she'd feel like her mother was nagging her from the real world about her room. "Instilling rules into the mind of a child is terrifying, but at the same time, useful for reinforced cleaning." Lana admitted while putting her messenger bag over her shoulder, before she left the room. The girl grabbed the black bow hair clip, setting the bangs of her hair back. Taking one last look at her room, Lana gave a satisfied nod at its cleanliness. Finally, she left the room to go down for breakfast.

When Lana got downstairs and entered the kitchen, Vi was already there with a tall pile of pancakes on a plate as well as some sliced fruits on the side.

Speaking around a mouthful of pancakes, Vi muffled out, "Morning! Help yourselves." Handing over a bottle of chocolate syrup, she swallowed her bite. "There's also maple syrup if you wanted that. Whipped cream?"

"Thank you, Vi." Lana thanked Vi as she took a seat, grabbing some pancakes onto her plate, "Could you pass me the maple syrup?" Vi slid the bottle of syrup toward Lana. "Thanks." Grabbing it, Lana drizzled a good amount atop of the stack of pancakes.

Milk walked in and began eating from the bowl in the corner.

Looking up from her pancakes, Vi remarked, "Aw that's adorable." She looked at Lana, who was sleepily eating the pancakes. "How's it?"

"It's good," Lana replied after swallowing a bite-size chunk of her pancakes.

"Good." Changing the topic abruptly, Vi decided it was a good time to bring up her strange dream. "So I had an odd dream. Like weirder than usual. Worse than that one with the robots and polar bears."

She continued, ignoring the confused look from Lana. "I think it was memories of the KHR arcs. In book form? I'm not sure, but it feels like they were locked up or blocked away? But some of them, like the Daily Life and the Kokuyo arcs that have already happened were open. And the Varia arc, which we're in now. Also when I flipped through through the books, memories started coming back. So I'm assuming that means the books that were locked are my missing memories? Lana, thoughts?" Vi looked expectantly at the other girl.

Lana's eyes were wide as saucers, "You experienshed the shame ming too?" She forgot that she was still chewing, and swallowed it before repeating herself again. "You experienced the same thing too?"

Vi raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Too? Well, that answered one of my questions. What was your dream like? Exactly like mine, with the big whitespace and books? Or something different?"

Lana shook her head, "Something completely different from yours. In fact, the place I was in was a moving train in the sky. I almost had a heart attack after seeing the sky when I opened the curtains." Lana paled in memory of it, but was grateful that she wasn't falling to her doom thanks to it. "And instead of your books, I had treasure chests filled with photographed images of what took place in Daily Life, Kokuyo, and finally the Varia arc."

"Thanks to the treasure chests, I was able to regain most of my memories regarding the current arc for now." Lana then decided to ask Vi a question in turn, "If your books are similar to my treasure chests, did you manage to see one titled Future?"

Vi hummed in agreement. "Yeah, I wondered what that one was! Do you remember there being a Future arc?"

Lana shook her head again wearing a frown on her face, "I don't remember a single thing, so I tried to pry the treasure chest open for the memories but the padlock wouldn't budge a single inch."

Stifling a snort behind her hand, Vi swallowed a bite before responding, "I slammed a book against the table. Nothing. Nada. But!" She opened her mouth as if to continue, but just shoved more pancakes into her mouth.

Lana stared at Vi feeling as if she almost landed on a cliffhanger, "But what?"

"I have a theory, but I'm not 100% on it yet. You said that you thought you saw your ring light up last night?" Vi placed her fork down and rested her head on her hands.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure I wasn't hallucinating."

Vi nodded, realizing her theory was probably right. "I thought so. And remember yesterday I accidentally shot you with the moon thing?"

Lana nodded in affirmation to Vi's question, "Yeah?"

Vi pointed dramatically with her fork. "Hypothesis. Our unique flames are the key to unlocking our memories."

"Our flames?" Lana blinked a few times as she tried to fit the new pieces of information together, "You mean our star and moon flames right?"

"Exactly. I don't know how, but if the two are linked like I think they are, then the more we use those flames, the more memories we get back." Vi waved vaguely in the air to emphasize her point. "So the faster we practice our powers, the more we remember and the more of an advantage we have. It's like your basic level grinding before a boss."

"So you actually want us to agree if Reborn ever asks us to help the Vongola fight?"

Vi frowned and shook her head. "I don't know. The benefits are pretty nice. We get formally allied in exchange for helping out. They might trust us faster since we helped them. We get involved with the Vongola and can follow the story deeper. But there are definitely cons to helping them. We might have to answer Reborn's questions about who we are. We might get hurt if we try to help them. It's a very complicated decision."

"Dang." Lana scratched the back of her head after taking in Vi's information, "Is this probably the true part of the game Checkerface set us up on?"

"We definitely will have to reveal ourselves to the Vongola soon." Vi sighed heavily and stabbed a pancake. "They're going to school the day after tomorrow, after Hibari's battle."

Lana pointed her fork at Vi while giving her a stern look, "We are not going to that. That battle is an endangerment to us especially if we end up getting hit by either a missile or a rain of bullets."

"If you say so."

' _We're not gonna die from that mess of a battle_.' Lana shuddered remembering the image of Hibari fighting against Gola Mosca.

"Anyways." Finishing her thoughts, Vi picked her fork back up. "That's why it's time for training." Punctuating her sentence with a stab of a banana slice, she paused before putting it in her mouth. "Well. not right now, but like, after school, ya know?"

"Sure, it actually gives purpose to the training room at least. It'd be a waste on not using it to prepare." Lana nodded, accepting Vi's suggestion for more training.

"Eugh, is that why Checkerface put a training room in the house? Gross." Vi finished her last bite of pancake and headed for the sink to wash her plate. "Gimme your plate so I can wash 'em."

Finishing her last pancake, Lana handed Vi her plate to go grab a bottle of water from the fridge before heading to the living room.

When Vi was finished washing the plates, she headed for the living room where she started petting the cat. "So fluffy, it's like a cloud. Ah, so comforting."

"You are not taking Milk to school today." Lana intently reminded Vi, heading back into the kitchen to get the lunch boxes.

Vi continued to pet Milk. "Yep, I wasn't going to do it anyways since Hibari's comin' back. No rule breaking is part of Plan DPAC."

"Yes, please don't. The last thing we need is death chasing after our hides the minute we disturb his peace around the school." Lana reminded Vi, "Yesterday was enough to scare us to the point of running back home."

"Yeah, yeah. No poking the very angry murderous bear with a pointy stick. Got it." Vi lay on the floor, Milk on her stomach.

"So…what's for lunch today?" Lana opened the fridge and took out their lunch boxes. Walking back into the living room and handing Vi her lunch box, the two opened their own box to reveal the leftover curry from yesterday night with lil cats made outta rice. Lana gaped at the rice cats, "That's so cute."

"Oh shit, that's fucking adorable," Vi cooed internally at the sight of the adorable food. "I hope he does this every single day. Just cute as fuck bentos."

"Oh man I can't believe Tsunomichi can make something so cute like this!" Replacing the lid on her lunch, Lana quickly packed it into her messenger bag. "Though it's sad that we have to eat something so neatly designed."

Glancing at the wall clock, Lana stated, "Time for school."

Vi packed away her lunch box into her bag. "Alright, everyone got everything? School books, coat, whatever else?"

"Yep." Lana replied with a thumbs up.

They were about to leave the kitchen when suddenly they heard a loud clamor of footsteps approaching from the hallway.

"Wait!" Screaming, Tsunomichi tripped through the doorway, holding onto a black box. "I have something before you go to school!"

In his hand was a black and white flip phone with a charm of what looked like a chibi version of himself.

Vi looked at the phone in Tsunomichi's hand with a dumbfounded expression. "That's a brick."

"What do you mean that's a brick?" Lana stared at Vi with a weirded out expression, "That's just a flip phone."

"Flip phones are bricks." Vi explained with a disdainful look. "So old. So decrepit."

"Have you not seen the cellphones with the antennae that you need to take out?" Lana brought up the even more ancient phone that her aunt had. "Those are much more closer to bricks. Closer to the original cellphone concept that was actually a brick."

Vi said nothing but had an incredibly disgusted look on her face.

Tsunomichi held out his phone. "I need to give you my phone number in case you run into any problems."

"Exactly what problems do you anticipate in which we'll need your help?" Vi asked with a wary look on her face.

With an innocent look on his face, Tsunomichi replied, "It's always best to be prepared!"

"Okay?" Lana then proceeded to take out her phone to enter Tsunomichi's number.

Vi, still disgusted, took Tsunomichi's phone and sent herself a text. "Please just get a smartphone, old man." Handing it back with her number in it, she took out her own phone and saved the new contact.

"Hey!" Tsunomichi put a hand on his chest. "I'm not that old!"

Looking incredulous as his statement, Vi turned to Lana. "Ready to go now?"

"Yeah." Lana nodded in agreement as she slipped her phone back into her bag.

They left the house, making sure to lock up behind them and headed for school.

Lana made sure to tell Vi this time, "No running off today, since the reaper is going to be at school this time."

"Aye, aye. Captain." Vi jokingly saluted the other girl. "I don't think I can pull off the moon energy thing again."

Nodding her head, Lana internally applauded to Vi's compliance. "At least we know you have some kind of support that might be useful in the future."

Vi narrowed her eyes. "As long as no one tries to yell 'I need healing' at me, I'm down with playing a support role."

"We're not in a video game, Vi." Lana pointed out, pretty sure of herself.

"You never know, Lana." Vi mimicked. "After all, we're in a manga already. Anything could happen."

Lana shrugged, "But it's not like they're going to add characters involved in the video game versions of this world."

"Fucking snow flames." Vi muttered under her breath. "A goddamn joke. What kind of paradox. Fire and ice. Honestly."

"Dunno, maybe the game producers didn't think too well on the premise of the game and the main plot." Lana recalled how some animes didn't follow according to their video game counterpart, but man was the KHR game a little bit too far off.

Suddenly wide eyed, Vi turned her head quickly and almost hit Lana with her hair. Pointing into an alley, "Holy shit, there's a cat."

"Vi." Lana spatted, almost getting hit by Vi's hair, "Vi, no!"

"Vi, yes!"

All of a sudden, the cat spotted them and started running and Vi immediately gave chase after it.

Lana puffed her cheeks and yelled at the runaway Vi, "I told you not to run off!"

She walked half a block, muttering darkly to herself. "I'm going to get Vi for this one day. Just one day."

' _But how am I going to do that?_ ' Lana continued to think to herself of what she could do get payback. ' _Maybe I can befriend Chrome somehow and ask her to help me to prank Vi if she doesn't visit Kokuyo Land_.'

Without warning, Vi popped up, slightly out of breath. "I caught him." Cuddling a chubby gray tabby cat, she scratched behind its ears.

"Really, Vi?" Lana frowned at the sight of seeing Vi holding yet another cat. "Let it go Vi. You're not allowed to have another cat. Our house is a one cat limit."

Vi held it out to the other girl. "Alright, but do you want to pet it first?"

Lana paused for a minute at Vi's suggestion, "…Kinda."

After they had gotten their fill of petting, Vi put the cat down and backed away. The cat sat there and looked very disgruntled for a second, having been petted by too many hands, then got up and walked away, very rumpled and fur sticking up. The two continued walking after the cat left.

Suddenly a loud barking started charging down Lana's way, the clicking of nails and the growling of a dog gaining closer. Instantly, she dashed away from Vi's side and started running like her life depended on it. Of all the times to get chased by a dog, why now?! And from the sound of said animal, it had a good bark to scare intruders. Although, why did it decide to chase her in particular?!

Dodging through the crowd, Lana noticed the crowd staring at her like she was crazy. She wondered if the dog was huge and wanted something from her bag. In an attempt to check her bag, the poor girl didn't notice the incoming obstacle in front of her

At full speed, Lana slammed against another steel pole head first. Leaving her sight in a disarray of what was happening, she soon found herself sitting on the ground.

"Grrr…" Lana gulped at the growling that was suddenly next to her. Turning her head slightly to see what she was up against, she was left in a small moment of shock. It was a baby chubby puppy cocker spaniel with short coffee colored fur and floppy ears that seemed too big for its small body. The little puppy woofed at an unexpectedly lower octave for such a small dog. Reaching her hand out to the puppy, it sniffed her outstretched hand, only to lightly lick at it. Lana giggled at the pup's action, it felt cold yet cute for a little puppy.

"What an adorable little puppy." Lana smiled, taking the puppy closer to her to ruffle its fur, "And much floof."

Vi stared as Lana ran from the small tiny dog. "Wow, I thought she said not to run off."

She continued walking, sure that Lana would eventually find her way to school. "Rude. After everything she said to me." She sniffed in mock offense. "Well, the only thing I can do now is plot my revenge."

_'Something evil. But not too evil. Like getting Kyoko to put more smileys on her stuff. Passive aggressive stuff. Oh my god, I have a great idea.'_

"She'll never see it coming!" Vi assumed an evil pose, laughing maniacally.

Lana slowly walked up to Vi after petting the puppy that chased after her, placing pressure on her bruising forehead, "What is happening?"

"I will exact my revenge." Vi nodded decisively and continued walking as if nothing was wrong.

"What do you mean?" Lana sent Vi a look of confusion.

Vi raised an eyebrow. "You said not to run off and ran off not five minutes after. That deserves retaliation."

Lana returned Vi's argue, "Hey, you ran off too! Besides I was chased by a dog while you went after a cat!"

"Point." Vi shrugged. "Well, I'm 71% sure you thought of your own revenge plan."

"29% says that I didn't." In truth, Lana was going to think of one until the dog ran after her.

Vi added on to her previous statement. "22% that you were thinking about it and decided not to make a plan."

"Stop decreasing the percentage and let's just get to class before we get killed by the prefect." Lana reminded Vi, not wanting to start another argument.

"Fine. Whatever." Conceding the fight, Vi followed after Lana. "But! 80% sure you'll agree to a prank war."

"I did not say that." Lana stated while standing her ground on the argument.

Vi grinned mischievously and asked, "Well, if I propose a prank war, will you accept?"

"Never." Lana flat out muttered under her breath.

"Boo." Vi pouted at Lana's refusal. "I'll wear you down eventually. How will I have my revenge otherwise?"

"Probably in the future or something when I have the esteem to allow you to do so." Lana brushed off the topic without much thought.

As they passed through the school gates, they saw the school buildings from yesterday's battle.

"I still find it unbelievable to see the school intact." Lana admitted upon seeing the school building.

"Such is the power of the mist." Vi boasted, wiggling her fingers.

Walking to class, they noticed some of the students whispering with each other. Thinking nothing of it, they walked into their classroom and headed for their seats. Vi smiled sweetly at Sakamoto who was already in his seat fully prepared for class. Strangely, many of their classmates were huddled up whispering furiously.

Curious at the whispers, Vi asked the boy what that was about.

"Oh! The Disciplinary Committee president has come back to school." Sakamoto explained. "They're in charge of maintaining order in the school. Many students seem to be afraid of the prefects, since they are very intimidating. But they do good work for the school, I'm sure!"

"Good work?" Lana mumbled to herself while dreading the thought of meeting the disciplinary prefect. _'Intimidating and beating sense of justice to people using brute force seems a little off for maintaining order.'_

As if he was summoned, Hibari showed up in the doorway and entered the classroom. Immediately, the students hushed and watched as he approached the two new students.

"Who are you." Hibari demanded as he stared down these unfamiliar students.

"Hibari-san! These are the new transfer students!" Sakamoto stood up and announced, barely meeting the Disciplinary Committee leader in the eyes.

Looking unimpressed, Hibari ignored the class representative. "Hm."

Terror filling her vision upon seeing Hibari, Lana couldn't look him in the eye at all.

Vi got up, looked Hibari straight in the eyes, and stuck out her hand with an innocent smile on her face. "Nice to meet you, Hibari-senpai. My name is Victoria."

Lana was too frozen stiff to even respond, but she can't help but frown at Vi for bringing the teacher's pet expression toward Hibari of all people. ' _I can't believe Vi is going to die today_.'

Hibari looked down at her with a blank face and Vi met his stare, continuing to smile innocently.

Sakamoto stood to the side, starting to look slightly distressed about the situation.

Hibari blinked and looked down. He stared at the grey knit scarf around Vi's neck and spoke, "That's violation of the dress code."

Eyes sparkling, Vi internally thought, ' _I am so glad I came prepared for this_.' Out loud, she said innocently, "Really? Because I read the student handbook in its entirety just recently and I don't think I saw that." She tilted her head forward and grinned with all her teeth showing. By now all of their classmates were staring at the girl who seemed to be standing up to Hibari.

' _Since when did Vi have the time to read that_?!' Lana was pretty sure she didn't see Vi take a single look at that book the whole time. _'Unless she always prepares a surprise from out of nowhere. No wonder she's a mist user.'_

Hibari started to show the beginnings of a scowl. "Hn?"

Vi took out the handbook from her bag. "See? Right here. 'Accessories that are distracting or inappropriate to the school environment are prohibited. However, garments or accessories that are for functional purposes, including but not limited to: gloves, scarves, hats may be worn during such circumstances.' I'm just wearing my scarf because it's so cold outside." She pouted at the last statement, giving an innocent look to Hibari who narrowed his eyes and looked at her suspiciously.

Watching the scene unfold, Lana's eyes widened abruptly, "Did Vi just?"

' _Oh great gawd, she did._ ' She silently noticed Hibari staring or rather glaring, well Lana wasn't sure at all, she just felt a chill running up her spine.

Hibari, feeling irritated that Vi had defied his 'rules', was tempted to fight the girl for insubordination. Raising his tonfas slightly, he took a step forward.

Sakamoto couldn't bear it anymore. "Hibari-san! Victoria-san is new and shouldn't be blamed for not knowing about your disciplinary committee! Please excuse her for any misconduct!" Stepping in front of Vi, he bowed his head slightly to his upperclassman.

In her head, Vi was frustrated that she didn't get a chance to sass Hibari some more. She memorized like half the handbook just for this. But she was also smug that the class rep had stuck up for her at risk to himself after knowing her for just a day. "Eh? Did I do something wrong?" Pouting, she tried to look as unsuspicious as possible.

Hibari, frustrated that he couldn't bite a class rep since he was important to the school, had a hard to tell expression on his face. Suddenly he turned to Lana. There was one new student left that he had yet to thoroughly inspect.

The second Hibari glanced over to Lana, she instantly hid her face to stare at the window muttering a mantra to herself for protection, "Don't look him in the eye, never look him in the eye. Terrifying mystery year disciplinary committee leader."

He found both her body language and words inexcusable behavior for a student of his school. Not to mention the bruise shown on her forehead hasn't been properly cleaned, "Tch. Disrespectful."

Hearing that word was enough to jolt Lana out of her chair, otherwise it would've been seen as a sign of defying Hibari. Strangely the sound of a chair being pulled back sounded beside Lana, causing her to shift her gaze over. Her eyes widened to see Kyoko getting up from her seat to face Hibari. In a calm manner, Kyoko simply stated, "Hibari-senpai, you're intimidating Lana-chan. It isn't right for an senpai to intimidate their underclassmen, especially when Lana-chan isn't doing anything at all."

"Kyoko." Lana mumbled the girl's name in disbelief of her actions. It felt nice to see someone like Kyoko trying to stand up for her.

Hibari glared at the two of them who didn't seem to notice, then turned and glared at all the frozen students around the room. Satisfied that he still instilled terror into the hearts of normal students, he shifted back to the two new girls. "Hm. I'll be keeping an eye on you." He turned to leave the classroom.

In Lana's mind, she began to question Hibari's words and compared them to a certain baby hitman who threatened them not too long ago. ' _What is with this situation, why are we being watched by two terrifying people?!_ '

Vi smiled and spoke in a respectable tone of voice, "Have a nice day, Hibari-senpai!"

Hibari looked incredibly menacing as he headed to the exit of the classroom, glaring coldly at anyone who dared look in his direction.

Suddenly a loud chirping came from an open window. Hibari's head snapped around at the sound of a bird.

Lana felt something nestle atop her head, a sudden chill ran up her spine as her skin tone suddenly became pale. ' _I'm going to die an early death_.'

Vi's eyes widened comically and she hissed at Lana, "There's nothing in the rule book about that."

Hibari stormed to Lana's desk and slammed his hands on the desk so hard, it rattled at the force. "What do you think you're doing."

' _How am I supposed to return your bird if you're intimidating me as I sit?!_ ' Lana really wanted to go home and cry in her pillow. What did she do to deserve attention from the death reaper of Namimori? Why did Hibird choose her head? These questions will never be answered, because Lana knew she was going to die pretty soon by the hands of the prefect.

Hibird paid no attention to neither the furious boy nor the terrified girl as she burrowed further into Lana's hair.

Hibari's eye twitched.

Vi began mentally writing Lana's eulogy.

Lana continued to internally suffer before saying her last prayers. ' _And then I want to give Vi my limited edition poster once I am dead_.' She was still deciding on who would gain her stuff from the top of her head.

The entire class was at a standstill watching the scene play out in front of them. Hibari seemed ready to grab his pet from Lana's head or remove Lana's head altogether with the power of his furious glare. Vi was sitting at her own desk, head in her palms, muttering to herself, "I read the entire rule book and ** _this_** is what happens?" Lana was frozen still unable to meet Hibari in the eye, as Hibird, still completely oblivious to the torment everyone was going through, finally settled in a nest of Lana's hair.

' _I regret showering yesterday. I should have showered in the morning_.' Lana mumbled hoping that some miracle would happen at the last minute.

The deadlock was broken as the door to the classroom opened with a sharp _bang_!

"What's going on here?" The homeroom teacher walked in with his arms full of materials. "Why are you not in your seats?"

The students began inching towards their seats, still on edge considering Hibari had made no move to leave.

"Well? I'm about to start class, so hurry up and sit down. I'm not sure what you're doing here, disciplinary committee president, but you're disrupting class, so I will have to ask you to leave."

Hibari tsked, glared coldly at the teacher, and walked out of the classroom. The teacher nodded slightly and headed to the front of the class. "Okay class, time to take out your books and turn to page 67."

The students took out their books and materials and thus class begun.

Opening her pencil case, Vi took out a pencil and rifled through it before making a small huff. "Oh shoot, I don't have an eraser."

Seeing Vi's dilemma, Lana grabbed her extra eraser from her desk and was about to give it to her when another arm reached out to Vi.

Sakamoto leaned across the gap and held out an eraser. "Would you like to borrow mine, Chō-san?"

Batting her eyelashes, Vi grinned. ' _All according to keikaku. Translator's note: keikaku means plan. Lol._ ' Biting her lip, she responded, "Oh thank you, Sakamoto-kun! You're so nice."

Blinking in amazement, Lana couldn't believe the scene she just witnessed unfold right in front of her. It felt weird and oddly seemed to resemble a boy meets girl drama. But, the only one falling was the class rep, not Vi at all by the gleam in her eyes, "…wow." Lana muttered to herself, slowly placing her eraser back where it belonged.

Refocusing her gaze back to her notebook, Lana couldn't help but mentally wish the boy luck. No offense, Vi's definitely her friend; however it was difficult to catch her interest in terms of affection after recalling what happened a few times in their world. Indeed, Lana pitied him, because Vi had high standards of which no boy in their world, nay the universe, could match. A girl, however, was far more likely to catch her eye.

Sakamoto's face pinked again as Vi went on the attack. "N-not a problem, Chō-san! Just being helpful!"

"Eh?" Vi's smile seemed to get evil for a split second, then resumed its innocent facade. "Didn't you call me Victoria when you stood up for me from the disciplinary committee leader?"

"Ha?! Did I?!" The poor boy seemed even more nervous. "I'm sorry for overstepping my bounds!"

"No, I don't mind. Actually," Here, Vi paused momentarily, acting shy and looking away slightly, "I'd like it if you called me Victoria."

Sakamoto now resembled an attractive tomato. "A-aah, if you would like that, then I suppose I will comply, Victoria-san." He managed to stutter out before turning down to his book, hoping that his face wouldn't catch on fire.

"Thank you, Sakamoto-kun!" Vi grinned and then looked down at her own book in success.

After class finished, Lana decided to thank her neighboring seatmate who stood up for her, "Thank you, Kyoko."

Beaming another sparkly smile, Kyoko grabbed Lana's hands, clasping them into her own without a care in the world. Whereas Lana felt trapped in Kyoko's grip over her own hands as it continued to envelope them, "It's nothing for a good friend!"

Lana blanked at the continuous flood of sparkle being slapped across her face, in a small gulp she unconsciously wondered out loud, "Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have you as an enemy."

"Hm?" Kyoko hummed while tilting her head out of curiosity, "What was that, Lana-chan?"

"N-nothing, nothing at all." Lana shook her head and gave a reassuring grin to Kyoko, but the movement caused her bangs to part, revealing the bruise she received from the event earlier that morning to the girl gripping onto her hands.

As Lana pondered why Kyoko started calling her in a friendly manner, Kyoko's hands tightened around hers a bit too much for comfort. Glancing up, Lana found Kyoko staring at her face very closely, "What's wrong?"

"Lana-chan…" Kyoko released one hand, pointing directly at Lana's forehead, "Why is your forehead bruising?"

"Well I kind of lost track of where I was going while walking to school." It wasn't far from the truth or a blatant lie stated by a certain hard-headed brother of Kyoko's. Lana, at least in her mind, felt the need to be truthful to Kyoko.

Quickly releasing her grip on Lana's hands, Kyoko grabbed a small box from her book bag, "Here it is!" It was a band aid. Kyoko immediately plastered the band aid over Lana's bruised area in hopes of it healing. Although Lana strongly knew that bruises wouldn't heal by a mere band aid.

"Thanks?" Lana patted her forehead to see that it was completely placed over her bruise by the small amount of pain received.

Kyoko simply smiled at Lana before leaving to go talk to Hana.

Snickering behind her hand, Vi reached in her book bag. "Hey Lana, you might wanna take a look at this." She pulled out a small compact mirror and pointed it towards the other girl's face.

Lana looked into the mirror and spotted the band aid Kyoko had stuck on her forehead. The light pink bandage had a smiley face in the middle.

Lana's skin paled the minute she saw the dreaded symbol on her own forehead. The girl internally screamed inside her head in anguish. ' _Not again!!_ '

The bell rang and break ended as the students began to re-enter the classroom.

"Alright kids." The history teacher walked into the class holding a packet of papers. "I hope you remember what I taught yesterday. Pop quiz!"

Most of the students groaned under their breath. They all put away their things and took out their pencils. Soon the classroom was silent as the papers were handed back and there was only the scritch scratch of writing and the occasional cough or sneeze.

"Oh when you're done, just wait at your desk until everyone's finished," the teacher added before sitting behind the table in the front and taking out a book.

Vi's face scrunched up upon hearing the words 'pop quiz', and in history class, no less. Classes like English and history were her least favorite classes. She was much more suited to math and science classes. Especially math. Even so, this was middle school world history and so Vi finished the quiz quickly then lay her head on her folded arms and waited for the rest of the class to finish.

Lana wasn't too bad in history since most of it was based on memory of what they reviewed in class. Unlike Vi's deep hatred for English and History, Lana didn't hate the two class subjects since she often got above average grades for them. Finishing the history quiz without a complaint, Lana flipped her quiz paper to show only the blank backside and to hide her answers from wandering eyes. After placing her pencil down, Lana then awaited for the rest of the class to finish their quiz.

After everyone finished their quizzes, the teacher collected them and moved on to the driest history lecture anyone could ever remember. If asked about it, Vi could not be able to tell you what happened as she had stared blankly at the board for twenty minutes lost in a daydream, but pen in hand scribbling on her notebook as if she was paying avid attention.

In the seat next to her, Sakamoto was glancing at Vi every so often, impressed with her intense concentration towards the subject, unaware of what she was truly thinking about. Which was cats. Just rivers and rivers of cats. It was a mountain of cats and Vi was the one true ruler of the land.

The bell rang, snapping Vi out of her daydream. She blinked in surprise. Turning back to Lana, she leaned in. "I have no idea what was said in the last half hour."

"Were you literally daydreaming this whole time?" Lana frowned at Vi and didn't realize that she wasn't paying attention to the lesson at all until Vi deliberately mentioned it.

Vi stared into Lana's eyes without blinking. "The cats were many, and I was their queen."

"Seriously?" Lana was beginning to question as to how Vi managed to get all of that within twenty minutes of one lesson.

"I have a skill for extensive daydreaming. It's a talent." Vi grinned.

The bell rang again and Vi and Lana settled back into their seats.

After break, they ended up having a substitute teacher for English Comprehension. However the level of the words seemed advanced for middle schoolers. Rather it was closer to questions that would be asked in a high school level for those in their second year.

' _Did someone mix up the textbooks or something?_ ' Lana wondered to herself as she read the pages of her textbook carefully while following along with the teacher. However as Lana was immersed with her reading, the teacher noticed that she wasn't focusing on the lesson. Therefore she decided to pick on the student ignoring her lecture, "Lana-san?"

Snapping out of her focus, Lana's eyes trailed over to the front of the room to see the teacher watching her. She gulped before answering, "Yes?"

"The English Alphabet starts with the letter A and twenty-five more, so here's a quick question since you came from America." The teacher pushed up her glasses as she read out loud, "The word alphabet comes from the words alpha and what else?"

"Beta." Lana answered without missing a beat. She felt confident in her answer after noting the same words in the difficult English Comprehension textbook.

Vi held in a laugh as the teacher in the front frowned, unable to scold Lana for not paying attention.

"Good to see that you're reading, but next time pay attention." Lana knew what the teacher meant, after all she often got picked on in class whenever she wasn't paying attention to the lesson. The teacher proceeded to continue the lesson, "Now as Lana-san answered, the English Alphabet comes from the first two letter of the Greek Alphabet which are alpha and beta. Any set of western European characters in a specific order is called an Alphabet."

Lana gave a small sigh. ' _At least I managed to get the answer right_.'

The bell rang, ending the teacher's lecture. Before she left the room, she reminded them to do the reading and homework due in two days.

Kyoko turned to Lana as soon as the teacher left. "Wow Lana-chan! How did you know how to answer that question? That was pretty advanced."

Lana scratched the back of her head while giving an embarrassed smile, "Well I was kind of invested in reading the English textbook since it's different than the ones we have in America. Besides the answer was also on the page she was teaching on."

Turning around in her chair, Vi faced Lana with a weird look in her eyes. "Werewolf fanfiction."

"What?" Lana sent Vi a raised eyebrow, completely confused of what she meant.

"I will never look at the Greek alphabet the same ever again." Vi seemed to have gone through an experience.

"Lana-chan?" Kyoko whispered to ask Lana, "What does Vi-chan mean by Werewolf fanfiction?"

Lana could only give Kyoko a shrug, "I really don't know." No seriously, she didn't know what Vi was talking about at all.

Vi dropped her head onto Lana's desk and whined. "It's what I get for going into the weird parts of the Internet. It's just so weird. Who does that?! Who looks at a werewolf and thinks, ' _Yep. Absolutely._ ' Weird people!"

Hana walked over as Vi was whining into Lana's desk. "So Lana, how'd you know about the alpha beta? Fanfiction or something?"

Vi snapped her head up so fast, Lana thought she heard a crack. "What do you know about alpha and beta in fanfiction?"

In a very uncharacteristic turn of events, Hana turned pink under Vi's scrutinizing stare. "Well. It's not like I went searching out for it on purpose. But it was… An interesting read. Very illuminating."

"I see." Vi continued to stare at Hana. She blinked once, twice and then turned to Lana and Kyoko with a blank look. They looked at her confused. Turning back to Hana, Vi stood up, putting an arm around Hana's shoulders. "Hana, let's have a talk over here. Have you heard of Teen Wolf?"

Kyoko looked as Vi and Hana got into a deep conversation in the corner of the room. "Lana-chan, do you know what Teen Wolf is?"

"No." Lana replied adamantly while wearing a blank knowing expression, "I don't think I want to."

The bell chimed, signaling the end of break. Immediately after the final notes rang out, the door slammed open to reveal a balding male teacher who quickly took his place at the podium and began speaking, effectively stopping all conversation.

This particular teacher wasn't exactly a favorite in the school. He sure loved going off topic and talking about his personal life during the math lesson, even though none of the students ever paid attention to his story.

The teacher continued to go on a bit on their life story, until he resumed the math lesson halfway through the hour. As boring as it seemed, the class had no choice but to listen to the teacher drone on and on, occasionally writing math problems on the board or talking about whatever they ate for dinner a week ago. Most of the students just copied down the material on the board word for word, not particularly paying attention to the explanations. Until Vi noticed something not quite right on one of the math questions' answer.

Vi raised her hand up immediately to inform the teacher. "Sensei. I believe you should go back to question 16."

"And why is that?" The math teacher raised a brow, questioning the student who had the guts to speak during their lecture.

"Because," Vi explained, unfazed by the teacher's response. "That's not the right answer."

The teacher made an unimpressed face. "I think I know more about math than you, young lady. What's your name?"

"Victoria." Vi stared down the teacher who, first of all, made a mistake; second, wouldn't even admit it; and third, tried to belittle her. She was determined to prove this teacher wrong.

"Well, V-victoria-kun, was it?" The teacher looked down at her, stumbling a tad at the foreign name. "How exactly is the answer wrong?"

"Well." Vi got up without an invitation, surprising the teacher and gaining the attention of the class. Walking towards the board, she grabbed the piece of chalk right out of the teacher's hand. "There's two mistakes here," circling the two numbers, "because your handwriting was so bad, you mistook the numbers. Also, the problem asked for a cube root, but you only squared it. And the decimal point is even in the wrong position." Marking each mistake the teacher made and rewriting it on the side, Vi finished solving the problem and took a step back, crossing her arms.

"…I suppose I can see where the mistake was made. Sit back down now." The teacher took the chalk back from Vi and waved her off.

Vi harrumphed softly and returned to her seat.

The teacher, having been humiliated by a student, finished their lesson quickly and left the classroom in a rush as soon as the bell rang.

"I forgot that you take your math so seriously." Lana commented as soon as break started.

Vi leaned back onto the other girl's desk. "The teach was a mess. Math deserves better than that. Also I'm pretty sure they made more mistakes than that, but if I corrected them all, he probably would have quit."

"Vi." Lana reinforced the tone of her voice. "Don't you even dare try." After warning Vi, the girl turned down to her notes to recheck her answers.

Sakamoto, who had been quiet until that point, spoke up suddenly. "That was impressive how you caught the calculation error, Victoria-san."

Vi turned to the boy. "Ah, thank you, Sakamoto-kun."

Sakamoto blushed in response to Vi's appreciation, "You're welcome."

The bell rang signifying that it was finally it was time for lunch and the students began either unpacking their bentos or heading to the cafeteria to buy food.

As Lana and Vi moved their desks so that they could eat together, Kyoko came over with Hana in tow, each holding a wrapped lunch box, "Lana-chan, could Hana-chan and I eat with you guys?"

Lana answered giving Kyoko a smile, "Sure." Lana somewhat found it weird that Hana's name had a similar pronunciation to her own and wondered if Kyoko might mis their names up at some point . ' _They are pronounced too similar…how's Kyoko gonna deal with our names later on?_ '

Vi looked up at Kyoko in surprise as the other girls had made no move to eat lunch with them the day before.

"Thank you!" Kyoko chirped as she joined her's and Hana's desk closer to create a table for four. Kyoko sat across from Lana whereas Hana sat the opposite of Vi.

"It's been a quiet second day, hasn't it?" Hana asked the two girls. "Everyone's always curious when someone transfers in. Especially if it's a girl. They practically went crazy yesterday."

Vi groaned in agony. "Oh my god, you knew that would happen and you didn't warn us? I was exhausted by the end of the day with all the questions!"

"But it wasn't that bad, it was bearable to an extent." Lana pointed out, "Plus Kyoko and Hana mentioned that there were other transfer students that came here before us, right?" She turned over to look at Hana and Kyoko to agree.

"That's right." Kyoko agreed, remembering the day they received their first transfer student. "Although that transfer student and two other students have been absent to class lately." Kyoko then proceeded to say their names anyway to the two new girls at their school. "Their names are Gokudera Hayato, Yamamoto Takeshi, and Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Hmph." A frown formed against Hana's face the moment Kyoko mentioned those three in particular. "Those idiot men."

Vi restrained from smirking at Lana and instead looked curiously at Hana. "Oh really? Tell us more."

"One of them is a useless idiot that's a sissy that can barely talk to a girl, another is a baseball idiot that might be popular if he knew anything besides baseball, and the last is a silver headed idiot with an obsession for the useless idiot calling him ' _Tenth_ ' for some reason that we don't even know." Hana summarized all three of the absent students without missing a beat.

"Hana-chan!" Kyoko gasped at her friend. "Don't be so mean! Gokudera-kun's not an idiot! He's really good at math."

Hana raised an eyebrow. "But the rest of them are idiots?"

Kyoko blinked her big innocent brown eyes. "I didn't say that."

"So what you're trying to tell us is that this Gokudera person is smart, just on an equivalent level to the other two in regards to them being friends?" Lana tried to put Hana's words into one sentence and was pretty confident in it.

Amused by Hana's description of the boys, Vi summed it up in her own words. "So we have a wimp, a baseball nut, and the wimp's fanboy."

"Yup." Lana added on as she finished unwrapping her lunchbox in the midst of their talk, she could already smell the curry from under the lid.

Upon seeing the duo's lunches, Kyoko gasped lightly, "Your lunch looks so adorable, did one of you guys make it?"

Lana shook her head, "No, our parental guardian did." Moving her lunchbox closer to Kyoko, Lana asked, "Do you wanna try a rice cat?"

Kyoko seemed surprised by Lana's offer, "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Lana nodded, not minding to give away one rice cat.

Using her spoon, Kyoko ate one of the rice cats and immediately squeezed her cheeks in delight, "Wow it's so yummy!"

Next to them, Vi had also shared a rice cat with Hana.

"Mmm! That's good!" said Hana, hand covering over her mouth.

"Yum." Lana mumbled in bliss after eating the curry together with the other rice cat she had in her lunchbox, "Curry is always so good."

"Could be more spicy." Vi remarked offhandedly, in between bites. "I crave the burn."

"Really? How spicy do you like curry?" Kyoko asked curiously.

"I can't handle anything spicy at all." Lana answered without a doubt after taking a bite of a potato, " I feel like I've been lit on fire to the point of begging someone for milk to sustain the burning sensation."

"I like anything from mild to medium." Hana added in her own opinion about how spicy she preferred her curry.

"Huh. Same." Vi looked at Hana with interest. "I also like it with mushrooms. Sometimes onions if they're chopped thinly enough. And basically any kind of meat."

"I heard some people put really bitter chocolate, some apples, or coconut milk in curry to change the flavoring." Lana informed the three of them from what she learned from her mom. Lana can't deny her mom's cooking advice since she's an actual chef with a keen sense of taste and smell.

"Oh! I use apples in my curry sometimes. It makes it taste super yummy!" Kyoko remarked, eyes sparkling. "My big brother loves them, too!"

"Your brother likes apples in curry?" Lana thought back to the time she first experimented in adding new ingredients to her curry base. At that time she was using coconut milk as a form of sweetening the spicy curry paste her brother accidentally got. "My older brother prefers coconut milk over apples as an added ingredient to curry."

"Lana-chan, you have an older brother?" Kyoko's eyes widened in surprise, while Lana nodded in response.

"Yep, although he's currently busy back home ever since I transferred over to Japan with Vi."

Hana seemed to be interested in this new topic. "Oh? How old is your brother, Lana?"

Vi immediately sensed Hana's intentions. "Mm! Didn't you say that your brother was dating the girl from the… Something? Flora?"

"Yeah, he met a girl named Fauna at his job in the planetarium." Lana, finally catching onto what Vi was trying to do covered for her.

"Is that so?" The hope in Hana's eyes dimmed once Lana explained her brother's relationship status. Unfortunately it was the biggest lie Lana could ever say about her brother. ' _That is the biggest lie we could ever make up, but the only cover we can do to prevent Hana from trying to ever hunt down my brother despite being another world.'_

The bell rang, lunch ended, and Kyoko and Hana went back to their seats, but not before promising to eat lunch again tomorrow.

The rest of school was boring as usual since the two girls knew most of the material already. Mostly they just sat in their seats. Vi looked like she was taking notes when she was in fact writing down plans for the future and Lana was taking diligent notes even though they weren't necessary.

When all the classes had finally ended, the students began to pack up their things and go home.

The duo walked down the stairs, through the front door, past the school gates without seeing hide nor hair of the death prefect.

"I feel this is a bad omen." Eyes narrowing, inspecting their surroundings, Vi began to pick up the pace, leaving Lana a couple steps behind.

"A bad omen indeed." Lana agreed as she gripped tightly onto the strap of her messenger bag.

Vi looked back and saw the other girl struggling to catch up. "Curse your adolescent legs." She paused to let Lana catch up.

"We can only blame it on growth." Lana replied in a huff, tired from following after Vi.

"If only we had wheels, I would just pull you along." Vi shook her head thoughtfully.

Lana sighed at the thought of Vi pulling her while wearing roller blades, "I have a sinking feeling that we'd both end up getting injured in the process."

"Hmm. Probably." Vi conceded. "Honestly, where do you think the bird man is? If he wasn't at his beloved school, where could he possibly be?"

Lana shrugged, not really wanting to think about it. Wanting to change the subject, Lana remembered Vi's desk partner. "So what's up with your relationship with the class rep?"

Vi's eyes brightened. "Listen my friend, I'd like to establish my rule over these children as soon as possible. So here's my plan."

Remembering Vi's plans, Lana narrowed her eyes at the other girl, "Exactly how many plans do you have right now?"

Tapping a finger on her chin thoughtfully, Vi rattled off her plan to rule the school. "Well, there is currently a single notebook. For now. Anyways, students follow several authority figures, including teachers, admin, and certain student led groups like the disciplinary committee and student council. I won't risk disciplinary committee because that route leads to certain death. My remaining options include class rep, student council president, and any other popular clubs. And since I got the good fortune to sit next to the class rep, I decided to start there first."

"Now you're making me feel bad for him." Lana muttered out of pity for Sakamoto's one-sided crush for Vi.

Defending herself, Vi stuck her tongue out. "Well hey I'm trying not to lead him on excessively since it won't last. I'm just playing a nice girl routine now and not a smitten girl act."

Lana made a blank expression toward Vi's statement. "Why in the world would you do this?"

Vi frowned. "I'd like to maintain a position of power in this school asap. If you're talking about why I would use Sakamoto like that, it's only because he was there. Plus I'm not planning to mess with him too much. It would hurt his feelings if I acted like I really liked him and then ignored him or broke up with him as soon as I got student council president or something."

"Aw." Lana clasped her hands together, finding Vi's opinion about Sakamoto to be rather sweet, "So you do care about him?"

"Not enough to date him seriously," Vi scoffed out. "He's too…" Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of a word to describe the class rep. "What's the word?"

Lana rattled off a bunch of words to match Sakamoto, "Kind? Nice? Gracious? Affectionate? Compassionate? Friendly? Loving?"

Vi snapped her fingers, thinking of the word. "Useless."

"Ouch." The word just slammed a ten ton weight on her heart. Lana placed her right hand over her heart clutching her sweater vest. The sensation of sympathy for the boy stabbed Lana's heart, "I pity Sakamoto so much now."

"Aww, not like a bad useless. I mean, the boy got class rep, so that's something. Well he could have just gotten it because no one else wanted it…" Trailing off again, Vi began to pity Sakamoto a little. "Or he could have gotten it because he's hardworking! Either way, he's only useless since he won't be able to contribute much to my overall plan of world domination."

"That is a new plan." Lana deadpanned.

"It's still in the works. Humanity has nothing to worry about yet." Vi crossed her arms over her chest. "But eventually, the world will be mine!" Raising her arms over her head, she laughed evilly.

Lana didn't know what to say the minute Vi spouted on about taking over the world. Those words sounded like a line from a certain someone that she copied from.

"It's a very new plan after all. With all our shiny new powers, we could certainly manage to take over at the very least a small country." Explaining her somewhat diabolical scheme, Vi had a smug grin on her face. "Or Antarctica. I would like a penguin."

Lana blinked a few times at the continent Vi mentioned, "Why Antarctica?"

Tilting her head slightly, Vi blinked back. "There's so few people there. Little resistance. I think we could handle a few penguins, couldn't we?"

"Why not the Arctic? Do you have something against polar bears?" Lana brought up, "Polar bears are just as nice as penguins."

"There's not much land up there to conquer, ya know? It's all slippery ice and stuff. Plus global warming's just shrinking it even more! Terrible." Shaking her head sadly, Vi sighed. "I would like a polar bear though. Imagine riding one into battle with a fucking sword or something."

Lana nodded, agreeing on the idea of riding a polar bear. "That would be awesome. Polar bears show no mercy."

The pair was almost home when there was a sudden flutter of wings and a flock of birds flew from a distant tree as if scared by some predator. In the distance, the girls could hear a faint tune.

_"Midori tanabiku Namimori no~"_

"Oh shit." Vi paled at the bird song.

"You jinxed us." Lana groaned, as she quickly took cover behind Vi.

They turned the corner slowly and immediately backtracked as they saw Hibari almost directly in front of their house.

"What the hell!" Vi whisper yelled at Lana.

Lana was practically sweating beads unsure of what to make of this predicament, "I'm literally clueless as to how he managed to find our house." However a thought suddenly arrived in mind, which caused the girl to deadpan. "Unless...the bird found a way to alert his owner about his location."

"That's absolutely terrifying. How are we going to get in?" Vi was already reaching into her bag for her phone.

"Wait." Lana stopped Vi for a moment. "I'm not sure calling him would be the best answer, but we're going to have to be silent as heck if we want to contact Tsunomichi right now or better yet sending him an SOS text would be best."

Vi opened the text messenger app on her phone. "How do you suggest Tsunomichi help us? I was just going to ask him to distract bird man somehow."

"Is that his nickname now?" Lana shook her head to ignore Hibari's new nickname, "I think Tsunomichi will be willing to help us distract him."

"We technically owe him for our recent lunch and dinner." Lana reminded Vi of what Tsunomichi had done for them, "Plus he also gave you permission to keep Milk and helped feed her."

"Well good for him. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him." Vi waved her arms in emphasis. "And I cannot throw him very far, Lana."

"Then what else can Tsunomichi do to save us? Do want him to drop Milk out of the window or something?" Lana considered a scenario that would avoid them being seen by Hibari, "In order to scare Hibird away from the house at least?"

Shaking her head vehemently, Vi rejected that idea. "We are not placing Milk in danger."

Lana looked around the corner, her eyes widened at what she saw. "Your cat is already in danger."

Vi whipped her head around and spotted the fluffy white cat walking on top of the walls stalking towards Hibird. Quietly shouting for dramatic effect, she extended a hand towards the cat. "Milk, nooooooo!"

At the same time, Hibari seemed to see the cat stalking Hibird and took a battle stance.

All of a sudden, Tsunomichi burst out of the house screaming, wearing an apron, holding a ladle, somewhat disguised with old lady hair curlers. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Mystic Marshmallow where did you go?!"

Hibari saw the 'old woman' and relaxed his stance. "Hn. Take your reanimated stuffed cat back indoors above the mantle where it belongs."

"How dare he say that to my precious Milk." Vi clenched her fist.

"He was also rude to Tsunomichi." Lana added on to Vi's words.

Vi shrugged. "Yeah I guess but my poor nyas."

Looking back around the corner, the pair saw that the school prefect had Hibird back on his shoulder and was walking away from their house, presumably back to school. Quickly, they ran over to the gates and unlocked them as fast as possible.

When they got them open, Tsunomichi was still standing outside holding the cat in his arms. "The nerve of children these days honestly."

"That was death senpai," Vi deadpanned, making grabby hands for the cat.

"He almost discovered the location of our house." Lana huffed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness he didn't see any of us."

Lifting the cat up, Vi praised the cat, "Well thank Milk he didn't."

Tsunomichi seemed confused by the statement. "There's milk in the fridge, but I thought you were lactose intolerant?"

"Milk is the cat." Vi raised an eyebrow.

Tsunomichi looked sheepish. "Oh. I've been calling her Marshmallow."

"We know. We heard you scream Mystic Marshmallow." Lana bluntly pointed out.

Tsunomichi looked even more embarrassed at that. "O-ohho… Well! You kids should come inside before that scary boy comes back." He ushered them inside the house quickly and closed the door behind them. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me!" he yelled behind him as he escaped, the cat following shortly behind him.

Lana and Vi exchanged amused looks at their mess of a caretaker.

"Alright…time for a nap!" Lana was going to head to the stairs, only to be grabbed by the collar of her dress shirt leaving her to choke for a second, "Ack!"

"Nope! It's training time!" Somehow Vi's grin had turned sadistic. "You ready to work out your star flames?"

"No!!" Lana yelped with tears in her eyes while being dragged away to her doom, "Dear lovely death please take me." At that point, Lana prayed for her doom.

"Sorry bud. No death, just me!" Laughing at her own terrible joke, Vi began to drag her to the basement door."

"That's even worse than death! Pain is unnecessary for death! Vi, why?!" Lana continued to screech for mercy.

Exiting from the kitchen, Tsunomichi wiped his hands in a towel to ask the both of them, "So how was your day at school?" Until he stopped dead in his tracks to question their small dilemma occurring in front of the trap door, "What is happening?"

"Ah! Help, Tsunomichi!" Lana grimaced flailing her arms around trying to squirm herself outta Vi's grip.

"Hey Tsunomich." Vi used her free hand to wave at their caretaker, "School was good, although we're going to train now."

"I…see…?" Taking this as a normal situation, Tsunomichi decided to change the subject by a suggestion, "Would you two like any snacks?"

Lana tried to reach her hands out to Tsunomichi in attempt for saving, completely vexed in her soon to be misfortune, "Save me!

Vi stopped dead in her tracks at the mention of snacks. "What kind of snacks are we talking here?"

Tsunomichi put a finger to his chin, "Um let's see. If you're going to be training, I would suggest granola bars, fruit cups, fruit jellies, and fruit gummies. Things with plenty of sugar and calories to balance out the energy you'll be spending while training."

Lana reached out to Tsunomichi in a desperate plea. "Tsunomichi please…! Don't make me train with her!"

"Sure just bring some snacks down when you can." Vi called out dismissively and opened the trapdoor to the basement. Letting go of Lana's collar and nudging her to the ladder, Vi stared at her meaningfully, "Down you go friend."

Lana screamed and grabbed onto Vi's arm, staring down into the darkness of the hidden training room. "Ohmygod Vi, no!"

Vi yanked Lana back a few steps away from the edge and stared at her with a blank face. "You know, if you don't want to go willingly, I can always just drop you down."

Lana's face hardened into one of resolve. "Fine."

"Good." Vi nodded decisively. "By the way. Tsunomichi thanks for lunch. How do you make rice cats?

Tsunomichi scratching the back of his head, he gave a small smile, "Eheh you're welcome. They were just something I picked up."

Milk arrived to meow at Vi allowing the girl to pick her up.

Upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, Lana fumbled for the light switch realizing there's no such thing within reach. "Where's the light switch?!" Lana scrambled around to grab the ladder rings before gravity pulled her down.

Vi yelled back, petting the cat softly, "Just keep feeling along the wall!"

Patting around the surface of the wall on the right, Lana finally felt the shape of a light switch, "Found it!" Switching the light on, Lana immediately closed her eyes from the blinding light.

Tsunomichi paused in his chopping and asked Vi. "How come you two have decided to train today?"

Vi blinked, mentally debating whether to ask Tsunomichi about the dreams. "Well. I thought that it couldn't hurt to be more prepared in case we need to fight or defend ourselves soon."

"That's good. More power to you then! Have a nice training session." Tsunomichi smiled at her before resuming making the snacks and preparing for dinner.

"Alright thanks." Vi slid down the ladder, landing on her two feet. Glancing up, she grinned at Lana, "It's fucking neat isn't it."

Lana turned to Vi wearing a dissatisfied facial expression, "Not when I'm the one being trained."

"I will also be training with you, so you don't need to be that worried." Vi cracked her knuckles. "Are you ready to get down to business?"

Crossing arms around her chest, Lana sighed in discomfort, "Don't tell me I have to figure out the hint without you."

"You gots to feel it." Vi did a vague hand gesture to explain to Lana.

In response to that, Lana bit her lip, "That's not much of a hint." Releasing her arms, Lana glanced around the room to find her weapon, "Is that my crossbow?"

Vi looked on the wall where Lana noticed her weapon. "Probably, I took my ruler like the first day I came down."

Lana thought back onto their arrival, "Really? I thought I placed it in the living room." She speculated a bit, until an idea came to her, "Maybe Tsunomichi moved it, but that would be amazing if he moved it while he was fainted."

"Maybe it was magic," Vi joked, raising an eyebrow and wiggling her fingers.

Lana gave a fake laugh, not amused by her joke, "Haha, I doubt my magic had anything to do with moving my weapon."

"You never know. If you did it, you could call your new move _Shooting Star_ or something fancy." Vi contemplated her own moon shot move.

Lana looked at Vi with a distrusting face, "What's the point of a fancy name when its supposed to do damage?"

"Battle cry purposes." Vi grinned and struck a victory pose.

"We don't live in a video game." Lana pointed out the obvious.

Vi nodded but hooked an arm around Lana's shoulders. "But we apparently do live in a shounen battle manga now."

Slapping her hand onto her forehead, Lana grunted at the double pain from the bruise and the slap for a short moment, "Okay." She lowered her hand down to her side, "I'm going to get my crossbow."

"Yus. Now I'm gonna go find the training dummies." Heading over to the only closet, Vi stepped inside and started browsing the rows of weapons.

Lana began to set up her crossbow according to what the Cervello had told her. "So how am I supposed to light up my star flame?"

Vi dragged out a dummy from the farthest lane in the closet, "Alright, so you already lit your sky flame. The star is more or less the same feel, got it?"

"Kinda?" Lana scrunched forehead somewhat understanding her explanation. She slipped on her star ring after grabbing it from her messenger bag.

"Do you need a moon shot to prep yourself for training?" Vi raised her hands in anticipation.

Backing away slowly, Lana refused the shocking energy boost, "Nope. No need. Plus it kind of hurts."

Vi raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Really? I didn't feel much when I shot myself."

"Now I wish there was another way to heal than your moon shot." Lana hoped that she would get a healing power just to avoid getting another jolt of electricity.

"See it sounds weird when you say it. I'm giving it a fancy name." Vi turned around and sat in a corner, thinking of something to call her healing power.

Lana shooed Vi off with a hand gesture, "Sure sure, go think while I stare at my ring for a moment."

' _Emotions are the key? Let's see what about stars do I know? They're hot gases in the solar system, and they don't exactly have a physical form unlike meteorites or comets.'_ Pausing at her last thoughts, Lana backtracked on the last two words, "Wait, meteorites and comets." Snapping her fingers, Lana figured out a connection and blurted out, "Comets! That's it!"

A louder voice interrupted Lana's train of thought. "Aha! Got it!"

While Lana was focused on training, Vi was thinking about the mysterious healing power she now had. _'Well it restored health. Or would it be energy? Stamina? So it's more like an energy drink instead of a healing potion. Not a healing potion, but a mana potion? Moon Mana? Luna Mana?'_ "Luna Mana! Lunamana? Lu Namana?" Looking amused at herself, Vi played around with the pronunciation, emphasizing different syllables. "Lunama Na! Nope, that one's weird. Lu Manana. Lumana. I'm getting off track now."

"Okay?" Lana blinked a few times, listening to Vi's mental train of thought being spoken out loud. She decided to tell the other girl about her newfound discovery. "Well Vi, I may have finally figured out a way to use my star flames."

Vi looked excited and bounced over to Lana. "Nice! Show me!"

Igniting her star ring in a similar manner as her other one, Lana focused her gaze on the sole item, "First I need to form a shape. A physical image of what I'm picturing." Concentrating, Lana's eyes narrowed, glancing over to her crossbow in hand. The image in her mind resembled a crystal-like arrow, and in turn, the ring gleamed in response as the arrow nocked right into the crossbow.

"Very glowy. Nice." Vi clapped in approval of Lana's new power.

Lana frowned, not satisfied with her results yet. "Hm. But it's kind of…crystal-like, isn't it? Wouldn't a more sturdy arrow work better?" She continued to focus more on the arrow, trying to get it to resemble the image in her mind, until all of a sudden the arrowhead shard burst into a scattering of crystal particles contained in a transparent white orb. Lana was displeased by the outcome. "I think I messed up."

Vi was surprised at the sudden shattering of the crystal. "No wait, it looks cool! See if you can shoot it or something!"

"Uhh, I'll try?" Raising the crossbow to her level, Lana aimed it at one of the dummies. Once she pulled the trigger, the orb sped toward the dummy only to trigger a small explosion of the shards upon impact, scattering like rubble. "Was that supposed to happen?"

"You just set the wall on fire. I don't know if that was what you wanted, but that was fucking cool." Vi stared at the slightly charred wall. "Let's do it again."

"I heard a loud noise. What happened?" Tsunomichi entered the training room, managing to climb down the ladder with only one hand, the other hand holding a tray of snacks.

Vi panicked and yelled on instinct. "Lana did it!"

"I can't believe you." Lana sent Vi a glare, she turned over to Tsunomichi to apologize, "I'm sorry. The explosion was my fault, and I didn't intend for that to happen at all."

Tsunomichi stared at the damage to the wall incredulously, "What happened to the wall?!"

"I didn't know the extent of my star flames." Bowing her head, Lana was sheepish on how much damage she had done.

He sighed, before patting Lana on the head. "Well, this was to be expected, I suppose. Anyways I brought some snacks, so eat up!" Tsunomichi held out his tray of cut up rabbit apples, sliced pears and persimmons, and a couple of nalgenes filled with water.

"Nice. Thanks." Grabbing an apple slice, Vi munched on the head of the rabbit. "Holy, I feel bad eating these apples man. They're too cute."

"Thank you." Taking a persimmon slice, Lana bit into it savoring the fruit. "Oh it's crunchy and sweet."

Tsunomichi added on to reassure them while they were eating, "Do not worry about the damage, it will be taken care of, feel free to train as much as you want." Grabbing onto one of the ladder rungs, Tsunomichi continued, "I will go back upstairs to make dinner. So please do enjoy the snack."

"We will." Munching on another persimmon, Lana returned to gaze upon her failed attempt. "Maybe I shouldn't focus too much on the star flames physical form. I mean look what happen to the wall." She pointed at the poor excuse of a wall, bearing the ashes of an unexpected bomb explosion.

"You should work on maintaining them, but probably not fire them." Vi shoved another apple slice into her mouth and thought. "Like figure out summoning and dispelling."

Lana shrugged, unsure of whether she could do it, "It's a start at least."

Finishing off the last of the apple rabbits, Vi wiped the juices off of her fingers. "Do you need a _Mana_ refresh?" Waggling her now clean fingers, she approached the other girl, grinning wickedly.

Shaking her head, Lana backed away in fear, holding her persimmon close protectively. "Not when I have food."

"Just give me a shout! I have to work on making it hurt less apparently." Vi frowned, metaphorical feathers ruffled by the thought that it had jolted the other two when she used it.

"I don't want to be your guinea pig for your healthy shot." Lana muttered in annoyance of becoming an experiment subjected to electrical volts.

"Well if you want it to hurt less, I need to keep using it. And it's either you or me, because Tsunomichi doesn't seem like he gets out much and I'm not testing it on the cat." Vi grimaced at the thought.

Closing her eyes, Lana clapped her hands in a pseudo prayer, "Please let there be another way to heal this annoying bruise on my head. Just make it hurt less please."

"Well, for now you gotta deal with me so might as well get it over with. Come on! Let me do it!" Making grabby hands at Lana, Vi grinned excitedly.

Lana heaved a heavy sigh, still keeping her hands together, "Ugh. Please, any god, answer my prayer soon." She extended a hand reluctantly toward Vi, not happy to receive another.

Pleased with her friend's acquiescence, Vi grabbed Lana's hand and concentrated on her ring, this time visualizing a flow of light starting from her hands to the other's hands. The ring lit up and Vi's hands began glowing slightly. " _Illuminate._ "

Lana blinked once and then twice. Surprised that it hurt less than the other day, Lana raised her hand at Vi, "Hey Vi, your moon shot seems to have less jolt than last time."

"Mm. Maybe it's like exposure therapy. Or maybe I have less oomph if I use it too much?" Vi mused out loud.

"Oh." Lana nodded while taking in Vi's assumption. "I see."

Vi continued her thoughts. "Well! The only way to know for certain is to keep testing it!"

Soon a thought began to occupy Lana's head and she questioned Vi about it, "So you have a healing support move and I have a sort of special attack move? Do you think we'll get anything else?"

Vi raised an eyebrow at Lana's description of her own move. "A 'sort of special' move? You have a veritable bomb with your star shards."

"But is that all we have? I mean I do have some kind of luck streak evasion, but not really helpful unless I feel like I'm being attacked." Lana admitted, tapping her finger over her mouth. "There might be more than what meets the eye."

"I would like to have another power," Vi contemplated the possibilities. "I have my behind the scenes support and you have a fucking bomb thing. You set the wall on fire damn."

Lana sweated in discomfort, putting her hands up in defense of her unintentional attack, "I didn't know what I was doing!"

"Aahh! Now I want something destructive!" Vi tapped her shoe out of frustration, then strided over to the corner to think, "Gimme like five minutes to figure something out."

"Sure." Finishing the last few slices of the persimmons, Lana left to face the wall resuming her self-training.

Rolling her sleeves up, Lana stretched suggesting to herself. "Let's see if I can try to control the shape." Putting her crossbow down, Lana placed her hands out before her trying to form the arrow again. Breathing in and out a few times, Lana murmured softly, "Focus ."

Unfortunately the arrow didn't appear in her grasp. Frowning, Lana bit the edge of lip, "Nothing."

_'What in the world was I thinking in the first place when I made the arrow?'_ Lana crouched down to stare at the ground in thought. ' _I just thought the image up. I didn't make any changes to form it.'_

"Emotions are the key, huh?" Lana muttered the Cervello woman's hint, "Emotions."

_'Her hint sounded like the same thing she said for igniting the sky flame ring.'_ Lana freed her right hand to stare at the ring. _'Don't think, just feel.'_

"Don't think, just feel." Getting from her crouched position, Lana raised her hands up as before. She muttered a chant to herself as she closed her eyes, "Don't think, just feel."

The minute Lana closed her eyes, all she saw was darkness. Nothing but the sounds of Vi trying to figure out something along with her own breathing was left. ' _Don't think, just feel.'_

In the depths of darkness, a bright light flickered on and off. Lana pursed her lips together, but the light continued flickering in her mind. Letting out a disgruntled sigh, she reminded herself the Cervello's words.

_'Don't think, just feel!'_

Shouting those words in her mind, the light completely stopped it's flickering. Lana groaned in anguish. She opened her eyes to reveal her now open sweaty palms, "I'm thinking too much."

_'Wouldn't it be better to not think at all?'_

Scratching her hair in distraught, Lana tried again in emptying her current thoughts.

_'The Cervello said this: Null all ill thoughts. Empty one's mind into one singular being.'_ Lana inhaled, holding it in place for a few seconds. Once she exhaled, Lana muttered, "Finally light the ring as if it's in tune to my own breathing."

The star ring ignited again, but instead of the usual flickering sensation she received from earlier Lana felt it hold itself out longer. Determined to keep it going, Lana refocused her eyes over to her open palms slightly regretting what she going to say next. _'I know I said that to Vi, but maybe she has a point.'_

"Appear like a shooting star, and marvel at the _Comet_ 's arrival!" She shouted in a whisper tone to avoid getting any attention from Vi. The pale yellow light strengthened into a small flame responding to Lana's commands, and the arrow slowly morphed its way back starting from the feathered end to the sharp tip of the crystal sharp arrowhead.

By the time it formed a shape, Lana kept on leveling her breathing to keep it from breaking.

_'So far so good.'_

The moment she said those words, a crack sounded from the almost perfect object.

_'No. No. No!'_ Lana pleaded to the flame. _'Not when I've almost got it!'_

Her hands clenched over the arrow, hoping the item wouldn't continue to dissipate in her grasp. Lana closed her eyes, clenching the arrow closer to her as if she were hugging it, "Don't leave yet, little comet!"

At first, Lana thought it would shatter due to her foolish idea of emptying her mind. However upon opening one eye, Lana still found the arrow in its ideal shape, apart from a small crack on the neck.

"It…it worked." Lana gaped in surprise, "I guess naming attacks stabilizes them?"

_'This is such an odd way, and as ridiculous giving an attack a name sounds…it really did help.'_ She defeatedly admitted to nicknaming her attack, Lana rolled the arrow around in her hands to see how long the crack was. It was halfway, anymore than that it would have snapped into two. Though in the end, Lana didn't like the name she gave to the arrow and had the urge to change it. _'Naming this arrow "Little Comet" isn't right at all. I think it's better off as Comet.'_

Nodding at the attack's newfound name, Lana pondered on what to do next, "Now to turn it off. Let's see…this thing is like a comet, right? So I need to form the dust tail it makes to disappear."

The arrow began to shine and started to shake a little in her hands for a moment as cracks started to appear until it poofed into dust, getting into Lana's eyes.

"Oh my god! My eyes! My eyes!" While trying to rub the dust out her eyes, Lana's back hit against the wall, leading her to slide down to the ground wiping off the dust the from her now watery eyes, "Note to self." Lana sneezed before raising a hand up, "Don't stare too long at the arrow."

Despite her first three arrows, Lana was unable to reform the arrow into the dust tail imagery she had in mind. Leaving constant amount of small explosions of dust particles to scatter directly into her face. It felt like having a glitter bomb explode right in front of you, except it stung a lot like sand.

Huffing out in frustration, Lana grimaced as she distanced herself away from the next arrow she made, "One more time." This time she refocused again, the arrow cracked. It continued to crack until it broke into miniscule pieces, "C'mon _Comet_." She muttered hoping the item would listen to her again.

The particles continued to minimize, forming a small mound of dust in her clasped hands. Pursing her lips together Lana blew the dust off her hands creating a trail. The dust floated into the air and then into nothingness.

"Finally." Lana sighed feeling her weakened arms get the best of her, "I finally got the hang of creating the dust tail to turn it off."

She grabbed her unfinished water bottle from the side to drink away the inhaled amount of dust that spewed across her face. After a few gulps of water, Lana wiped a stray trickle of water as the remembrance of the transparent orb returned to her mind.

_'…I wonder how the arrow disintegrated into that?'_ Lowering her water bottle, Lana wondered of the orb's capabilities besides exploding like a grenade when thrown. _'It felt like a container meant to explode on contact. Unlike the arrow meant for piercing…it will react on rapid contact.'_

Gripping tightly onto her water bottle, Lana recapped it not wanting any water to splash out of nowhere. Stretching her arms out, she decided to see if she can control the orb.

Taking another deep breath, Lana mumbled out in hope, "Now let's reform that orb again." Remaking the same arrow as before, Lana concentrated her focus solely on recreating the particles. The same particles that swirled within the transparent orb's structure. Breaking itself down the arrow's leftover particles wavered a few times, floating up and down a few times trying to form a sphere.

_'Swirl. A swirl._ ' The image of a swirling black hole flew into her mind. _'That's right,'_ the swirling motion from the orb resembled a smaller version of a black hole. Keeping the picture in thought, Lana focused on the floating particles. Slowing down it's repeated up and down motion, it began to form a trail circling at a blank point, "Yes, that's right _Comet_."

Lana suddenly had a feeling as if she were talking to the attack, despite its inability to speak. The swirl's edges started to form a barrier similar to the transparent orb she held in her crossbow. ' _Solidify.'_

Maneuvering the orb floating in her hands, Lana continued to cheer the particles on in her mind as the edges began to form into solid glass pieces of an orb. It seemed like watching a jigsaw puzzle put itself together right before her eyes.

"Wow." Lana breathed out in awe as the final piece filled the last spot on the barrier, leaving a transparent orb in its place. A swirl of dust particles revolving within it's trapped space. _'This is amazing, yet so deadly at the same time.'_

Not wanting to drop the orb, Lana decided to remorph it back into an arrow again. Dissipating the orb's barrier, the particles merged together in her palms to reform the same arrow she wanted.

In the background, Vi seemed to be screaming in rage and mutilating a poor dummy on the ground.

Lana ignored Vi's antics, keeping her focus directly on the arrow in her hands. The current arrow held out better than the previous attempts and didn't explode into dust immediately. Seeing it as _Comet's_ withstanding form, Lana decided to use the arrow for target practice. Better the arrow than the orb, otherwise it'd explode again.

Locking the item into position, she aimed it at the dummy trying to pierce it. Luckily the arrow didn't explode, but it scattered into particles almost immediately upon impact, leaving a small dent in the dummy.

"Yes, I've struck through!" Doing a small victory dance or more like prancing around in a circle, Lana paused a moment to realize that her friend's antics were literally getting to her.

_'I don't think Vi saw…'_ Lana glanced over to see Vi still focused on her training. She wiped away her the sweat from her forehead in relief. _'Phew…I'm safe.'_

"Anyways…" Lana stared at her crossbow in hand. She felt glad that she was capable of attacking alongside Vi. Lana found her crossbow pretty useless since it didn't have many arrows to use for attacks unlike the time she first used it but that was mere practice. Tilting her head side to side, Lana tried to think of how their flames have anything to do with their missing memories of the KHR plot line.

_'I don't understand why we have these at all. What if we don't want to attack anyone using these powers? Do we not get our memories back then? Or…?'_ A stupid thought popped into her head, and Lana frowned at it. _'Would an explosive power increase our chances of getting our memories back work?'_

On one hand, it was a yet to be tested theory that had the possibility of being true, but on the other hand. It could lead to the same disaster as before. Lana visibly flinched in remembering the sudden explosion from earlier, glancing back at the still ashened wall. "Arrow practice or orb bomb?" Lana debated between the two using eenie meanie miney moe, the result of the debate wasn't pretty.

"Orb bomb." Lana's face paled in shame on her decision making skills, "Do I really want to do another?"

In the very back of Lana's mind, a yell of yes sounded. Her inner foolishness was speaking to her now. Ironically, the voice sounded very much like Vi. Chewing on the edge of her lip, Lana's eyes narrowed at the crossbow held in her right hand.

_'No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes! No! Yes!'_ The voice resembling Vi was much louder than the other, leading Lana to hold her breath as she set up the crossbow again. "I really hope Tsunomichi won't be too mad if I mess this up."

She could see it playing out in her mind's eye, the memory of the orb slamming into the wall along with the sound of glass shattering. Unlike the particles she made to form a dust tail, the ones from the orb practically exploded right on the wall. Without even thinking, Lana accidentally tapped the trigger, launching the orb of doom toward the wall.

Right before it landed, Lana could already tell. It would be much worse than the previous explosions. Even worse than the one that destroyed the wall. Her last thought before it exploded was ' _Oh dear, I hope Tsunomichi won't be too mad.'_

* * *

While Lana was trying to fix her star arrow, Vi was standing in her corner, pacing in frustration. "Moon flame. If I remember correctly, Tsunomichi said something about balance between creation and destruction. So like a full moon and a new moon? Hm well, I think I have the creation down with the healing, so it's just destruction then. How does the moon destruct? Well for that matter, how does the moon create? Why would it be a healing thing? Is it taking creation literally? Am I physical healing or energy healing?"

Thinking back on the times she used her power in the last couple days, she remembered how they seemed to be re-energized after the magic and Lana's bruise had faded slightly. "In that case, it might be similar to the sun flames? Since the moon gets its light from the sun. Eugh. I don't want anything to do with that muscle head." Grimacing at the thought that she had similarities with the sun guardian, she shook her head trying to banish away those bad vibes.

"And just now, I said _Illuminate_ on accident. Well, I guess it wants to be called that. Even though I liked Luna Mana just fine. Lunamina? As in stamina? _Lumina_ for short then."

"The first time _Lumina_ happened was…? I think when Lana showed up at the school gates…"

She smiled smugly to herself thinking back on it. "Lana should know by now not to challenge me and my ridiculously competitive ass. I have a Thing about needing to win. Plus it doesn't hurt that winning feels nice."

"So I guess my trigger is intense emotions. Pride? Self-confidence, at least. So if I believe I can, then I will be able to."

Continuing with her thought process, Vi sat on the ground and crossed her legs. "Anyways why do I have to heal for creation? If anything, I'd assume creation would make a light blast or something. Or is that too destructive? Well, if I'm supposed to be balance between creation and destruction, a light blast might be perfect. Creating light that's destructive. Or maybe an eclipse is more balancing? Ahhh this is all too much!"

In her frustration, Vi grabbed a switchblade off the wall, remembering her ruler was still in her bag upstairs. "This is ridiculous! Why do we have to have all these extra powers?! Why can't I just deal with mist?!"

She stalked towards a dummy in the corner of the room. "Can't even figure out how to work it! There's no fucking rule book for this!" Taking swings at the dummy, she took a stance and began stabbing into it, cursing at it the whole time.

Absolutely furious, she stuck the knife in its gut and began throwing punches. "Stupid moon powers! What the hell am I supposed to do! Make a crater or something?! I'll show you a crater!"

After several punches in the poor dummy's face, she "Just do something already!"

The moon ring on her finger lit up brightly and her fists began glowing white. The dummy head she was holding was engulfed in a bright white light between her hands. Just as suddenly as the light appeared, the light went out and the head detached from the dummy and fell onto the ground with a thunk.

"What the heck." The head was somewhat deformed with some smoke rising off of it. Vi stuck out her hands and reached down to grab it but retracted her hands immediately. "It's cold!"

Looking around quickly, she grabbed two knives and tried to stick them into the head to pick it up, but the knives wouldn't go into the frozen head. Improvising, she used the knife tips to carefully balance it, almost slipping a few times. Finally she managed to get it onto the counter.

After closer inspection, Vi realized that only the outside of the head was frozen. The inside was mostly normal while there was a thin layer of frozen foam around it. Carefully prying the layer off with some fancy knife-work, she saw that it seemed to be a strange combination of frozen and burned. "Huh. Bizarre."

Her contemplation was interrupted by a shockingly loud explosion in the corner where Lana was.

Vi screamed in surprise as a cloud of smoke and dust covered half of the room. "Lana! What was that?!"

Aside from the scorch marks, you could see crystallized jagged flames stabbing the wall Lana was supposedly aiming at. The target was lying on the ground, completely filled with a bunch of crystallized flames as if it was slammed to the wall then the seams unravelled allowing the target to drop like it was dead body.

Vi whistled in awe. "Wow. That would kill someone dead."

Lana whined in a depressed tone, "I can't make my powers work properly!" Stomping her right foot a few times on the ground, Lana folded her arms as she asked them a question, "How did you even do yours?"

"Judging from what I did just now, a lot of rage. Or I suppose you would call it determination?" Vi pondered the word choice. "Definitely intense emotions though."

Lana's eyes trailed over to Vi's side to see a certain dummy on the ground, "Did this happen while you were beating up your dummy?"

"Maybe…" Vi's voice trailed off, face looking vaguely guilty.

Lana made her way over to the chunk lying on the counter to see what had happened. Turning the head over, she paled at her discoveries. Small burn marks and an uneven melting layer of ice decorated the poor head. Seeing this, Lana felt the need to have a chat with Vi in the near future about her anger issues.

"I can burn things now. Or is it freeze? Don't really know." Vi shrugged. "I was about to inspect the results when you blew stuff up again."

"What in the world did you do to the dummy?" Lana kneeled down, taking a closer look at the destroyed decapitated dummy on the ground. "Besides that, why were you screaming in the background in the first place?" Lana took the dummy's decapitated head and returned it to the counter for Tsunomichi before sending Vi a questioning look.

"Whop~" The look on Vi's face was deceivingly innocent. One could barely believe that she was the cause of the crime on the ground.

"From my count, there's gotta be at least forty-two stab holes in this. Some of them are overlapping, and there's a few slashes from the back." Lana roughly estimated the autopsy of the dummy based on how much Vi put into attacking the poor target. Remembering how the head of the dummy had a strange layer of contrasting frozen and burnt foam, Lana decided to ask Vi. "Do we need to have a one on one? Or can you explain whether that head on the counter is frozen or burnt?" Lana, at this point, questioned the girl's power since it was hard to tell since it looked like a mixture of both.

"Yes." Vi deadpanned. "Both probably. Like I said, I haven't finished looking at it yet."

"You killed the dummy out of frustration." Lana summarized Vi's tantrum, "I guess anger is something that triggers your attack? But, you didn't seem mad when you gave me the moon shot for the first time."

Vi agreed with Lana's statement. "True. I was more smug than anything else. But maybe positive emotions make a positive power. To quote Tsunomich, the moon flame has a dual nature of creation and destruction." She motioned at the frozen head. "Voila. Negative emotion, meet negative power."

Lana finished her deduction with a nod. Stroking her invisible beard, Lana answered pointing at Vi as if she were the perpetrator. "So you were angry when you unlocked this."

Vi grabbed the head from the counter and sat on the ground, prying it apart. "Most of the rage was from trying to figure out the whole moon thing. You know, our flames didn't exactly come with an instruction manual and Checkerface, the bastard, wasn't exactly forthcoming with the details. Plus everything's still fucking terrible, with not knowing what's going on back home and finding out we're in a fictional world. So as you can probably guess by now, I'm pretty fucking angry." While she was talking, she was also picking apart the head in her hands and by her final statement, all that was left in her grasp was a mess of foam bits, some frozen, burnt, or both.

"You're not the only one who's mad." Lana frowned, sending her gaze over to the floor. "I'm still upset at the fact that we didn't get a complete explanation from Checkerface from the start. I just…want information about our families the most."

Vi took a deep breath calming herself and stood up, foam falling to the ground. "Okay, I think that's enough of a pity party. I smell food."

The smell of food wafted from upstairs, causing their stomachs to gurgle from hunger.

"It's time for dinner!" Tsunomichi's voice announced happily to them from above, killing the somber mood in the room.

"We should go up now, since Tsunomichi is already calling for us." Lana brought up as she went back to hang her crossbow on the wall.

"First!" Vi ran towards the ladder, wanting to get up and eat as soon as possible.

Lana sighed and stood off to the side. "I'll just wait until you're up. I don't want you falling on me if you slip."

Upon entering the kitchen, they saw that Tsunomichi had made fried tempura sided with some leftover curry from the previous night. Fried shrimp, eggplants, sweet potatoes, and squid.

"It looks delicious." Lana clapped her hands in awe at the amount of fried tempura.

Vi made a face upon sighting the eggplant. "Eck. Why eggplant? Why not zucchini or something?" She headed to the fridge and took out a water bottle and a bottle of strawberry calpis.

Tsunomichi ignored Vi's comment. "Please have as much as you want." After pouring some food into the cat dish in the corner, the man oddly didn't leave the kitchen like he usually did. "What was that explosion just now? Did something happen during your training?"

"Uh." Lana clammed up the minute Tsunomichi decided to ask about their progress, "Well you see that explosion was-"

Vi placed a water bottle in front of the culprit and looked meaningfully. "That was Lana."

"Yes, because apparently _Comet_ —" Lana was going to explain her situation, until Vi cut in.

"You named your move." Hand still in the air, halfway through filling up her own bowl, Vi stared at Lana in disbelief.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Lana admitted, "Yes Vi, I named it. Now going back to what I was saying, _Comet_ at first started out as a crystallized arrow meant to be used for my crossbow since the Cervello didn't leave me with any and somehow during my concentration, it reformatted into some sort of transparent orb with an internal black hole made up of shards. Since I never used it before, Vi suggested that I shoot it at one of the dummies."

"It lit up the wall." Waving her thankfully clean spoon in the air, Vi made large gestures to show the explosion. "There are scorch marks!"

Tsunomichi widened his eyes in surprise. "Scorch marks! Oh my goodness!" He paced out of the kitchen. "I will fix that, don't you worry!"

"Sorry about that!" Lana yelled at Tsunomichi's exiting figure.

She chewed her food before she continued, "I miscalculated. I didn't know the extent of how strong _Comet's_ orb form would be. However I feel that we really shouldn't use that form at all."

"Why not?" Vi opened her drink and took a sip. "It looked pretty cool and very powerful."

Lana shook her head out in disappointment, "You saw how it exploded right? I would feel better shooting an arrow than a bomb at enemies."

"Bud, do you need me to repeat what I said earlier. We're in a shounen manga, specifically one with the mafia of all things. The magical. Fucking. Mafia." Vi emphasized the last sentences to get the words nailed into Lana's head.

Lana shook her head, maintaining her stance, "But the attack is dangerous if bystanders are involved."

"Most of what's happening now is at night time. Innocent bystanders don't just walk into a middle school at midnight." Vi frowned, still not getting why Lana would be so afraid of her powers.

"But—" Lana was going to retort to Vi's statement, only to have food stuffed into her mouth in the middle of her words.

Vi had grabbed Lana's spoon and shoved it in her mouth. "No buts, butts, or otherwise. Now shush your mouth and eat your food. We have a battle to see tonight. A very important battle."

Lana glared as she chewed the food stuffed in her mouth. ' _What if there are people going out to go get something at a twenty-four hour convenience store?_ ' She contemplated in her mind as an image of her orb bomb scattering then accidentally leading to a direct stab to an innocent bystander. Lana gulped nervously as the image blared out in her mind. Shaking off the thoughts, Lana decided to ask Vi. "What's so important about this battle anyway? Isn't it simply Chrome's first appearance in the Varia arc?"

Vi spluttered at Lana's short summary. "What?! How could you say that?! It's the best ring battle by far! They win so tremendously, completely overwhelming the enemy without a scratch!" Vi paused and muttered under her breath. "Well if you don't count that bit with the internal organs and all that."

"Oh that's right." Lana did that in order to make sure she wasn't missing the memories of the next battle, "But what I still don't get is how Mukuro managed to recreate organs."

"Something about real illusions. Something something hell, something something came back from the dead. Gives him the power. Blah blah illusions." Vi personally understood about half of what made an illusion, but still couldn't put it into words. Mukuro was a completely separate enigma. "Basically."

"So just illusions in general?" Lana quickly summarized from Vi's continuous explanation regarding Mukuro's powers.

"It's a mess. But a mess that I'll figure out eventually." Vi lifted up her hand, palm up. "I can make a bubble," she announced as a faint outline of a sphere floated in her hand. "Mist powers are weird, my friend."

Clapping his hands together, Tsunomichi suddenly returned to the kitchen, startling the duo, to announce, "It's almost time to leave for tonight's battle."

Once the two girls finished clearing away the items on the table, Tsunomichi began cleaning the items in the sink and shooed the girls out of the kitchen.

"We should change." Lana suggested while gesturing at their uniforms, worn out from training.

"Ye." Turning back to the kitchen, Vi yelled, "Thanks for dinner, Tsunomich!"

"Thank you very much, Tsunomichi!" Lana thanked the caretaker from behind Vi.

They headed up the stairs and into their respective bedrooms to change into more fitting clothes for their spying.

Lana had to fish through her drawer for clothes that wouldn't stand out too much in the middle of the night. Her previous night's clothes haven't exactly been washed yet, so she had to make do with the jeans she hid in the back of her closet. It was worn out, but still retained its nice shade of black. Next, Lana debated between wearing a dark blue long sleeved t-shirt with 'Cool Beans' as the logo on it or the black and white tie-dye she got from a vendor a long time ago.

"Cool Beans or Tie-dye?" Lana muttered to herself as she stared at the two shirts lying atop of her bed. "In all honesty, the tie-dye would make me stick out like a sore thumb. So Cool Beans shirt it is." She refolded the tie-dye shirt and returned it to its respective drawer. As Lana tugged on the edge of her socks, she stared at the accessories sitting atop of the drawer. Unclipping her bow clip from her hair, Lana fixed her hair a bit making sure there weren't any stray hairs sticking up. Once Lana finished she made her way over to the messenger bag she brought up from the training room. Opening a pocket from the messenger bag, Lana unclasped the necklace to place around her neck. Her rings dangled off of the chain, clanging against each other as Lana double checked her cellphone to make sure it still good before pocketing it.

"Now time for a check off." Lana reminded herself as she pointed at each furniture item in her room. The accessories were put away in its respective places atop of the dresser, the clothes hanger that was once holding the pants was now holding Lana's worn out uniform. She made a mental note to wash the clothes at least by the end of the week or some time soon. Lana had already placed the rest of her laundry in the laundry basket sitting in her closet. Messenger bag was sitting on one of her pillow cushions by the coffee table. Laptop was off and had been like that for the past few days. She realized she hadn't checked it yet due to their time at school combined with discussions of what to do next before the next Varia battle.

' _I should really take a look at it when there's time._ ' Lana nodded at the thought before resuming her check off, but so far the room was pretty much done with its daily room check off. "And now to go wait for Vi downstairs." Before Lana headed out of the room, she swiped a grey jacket from her closet for warmth; after all, it did get cold at night.

Vi quickly shed off her uniform and scarf and socks. Seeing the clothes she wore last night in the hamper in the closet, she pondered if she should just wear the same thing. Finally deciding that it would be tacky, she meticulously picked out different clothes.

Dark blue skinny jeans with a black and blue striped short sleeve turtleneck. A long sleeved black coat on top. A scarf wouldn't be necessary since there was a turtleneck, so she just left them to the side. Remembering the mild winds from last night, she figured a hat wouldn't be a good idea. Thinking about what shoes would match the outfit, she decided a pair of ankle boots would be a good change. She dug her favorite black pair out of the closet and made sure they wouldn't be too conspicuous. "Alright, the heels aren't too tall and they don't click too loud if I run. They're good!"

The rings were practically always on her hands now so she didn't need to grab them. Although, thinking about it, it may be suspicious if anyone saw them, so she took a pair of black gloves from a drawer. Grabbing her phone and sticking it in her pocket, she wondered if she needed anything else. She started to just shove random junk into her pockets, figuring she might need them later. Not seeing anything else important, she brushed her hair quickly, not wanting to tie it up tonight, and quickly headed back downstairs.

By the time Lana went downstairs, the living room was strangely empty.

Lana raised a brow as she wondered out loud, "Is Vi still upstairs?"

"I'm in the kitchen!" came a shout.

"Are you getting snacks again?" Lana figured that'd be one of the other reasons for her absence.

Vi yelled back, head in the pantry. "Yeah! Do you have any requests?"

Lana hummed a bit on the thought of snacks, specifically chocolate, and decided to head into the kitchen. "I'm gonna go get some snacks too."

Approaching the kitchen, she overheard Tsunomichi and Vi talking.

Vi had a worried tone as she asked their caretaker, "If I remember correctly, the mist battle takes place in the gym. How will we observe if we can't get in?"

Tsunomichi nodded in understanding. "I've prepared some aids for you, to help in your observations." He handed them each a pair of binoculars.

"Fancy gadgets." Vi held them up and inspected them closely.

"What are these for?" Lana asked their caretaker while holding her binoculars close.

"These special items help you two to look into the gym to avoid getting seen by the main group. They're specially modified with a combination of flames and technology to enable you to see whatever you want from a distance."

"A flame enhanced item?" Lana promptly stared at the device in curiosity, wondering what type flame was placed into the item. "What type of flame is being used on this?"

"There's a mist flame in here." Vi stated, peering through the lenses.

Tsunomichi seemed impressed. "Correct! But you should have known that having a mist flame yourself. The mist flame assists in extending the range and enabling you to see through some objects. There's also a rain flame so you don't get a headache from prolonged use."

Lana then decided to add on another question, "What about my flame? In the way you worded about sky flames, you made it sound like they neutralize the effects of other flames when they touch the other six flames right?"Lana proceeded to continue her questioning, "Is there something coating mines to prevent the mist and rain flames from neutralizing?"

Tsunomichi suddenly seemed incredibly nervous. "Oh! Well. Um… I'm afraid that… Well? I don't know enough about your flame to say?"

"Hm, then I guess Checkerface is the only one that can answer it." Lana concluded in the end, deciding to save those questions for later.

Vi narrowed her eyes, suspicious, but didn't say anything on Lana's behalf.

"Yes! I suppose so! Hahaha!" Tsunomichi laughed in relief. "Well! You'd better be off now!" He shooed them into the living room.

"Wait! I need to change! I'm indecent!" Vi yelled, running up the stairs. "I need to be perfect on this day of my baes!"

"But we're not even meeting them face to face yet." Lana commented on Vi's yelling.

"It's for my poor bi heart!" came the yell and the slam of a door.

Once in her room, Vi quickly changed out of her uniform, messy from school and then training. She grabbed a pair of black skinny jeans, a dark purple flannel shirt, and a black windbreaker with blue lining. She grabbed a gray beanie and slipped it on her head, making sure her hair was neatly under it. Putting her rings on, she also grabbed a small crossbody and stuffed it with her phone, the binoculars from Tsunomichi, and more candy. She grabbed a pair of ankle boots from the closet, perfect for sneaking around quietly while looking fantastic. Patting herself down, she checked her outfit in the mirror before going back downstairs. "Excellent."

Lana massaged her temples, groaning from the sharp pain of too much thinking. "I'm going to change too."

She headed upstairs from the training room and made a beeline for her room. Once Lana locked herself in her room, she decided to be lazy in picking an outfit for herself. Even though Vi is officially meeting Chrome and Mukuro at the same time, Lana just wanted to get this day over with for sleep. Lana exchanged her school uniform for some grey jogging pants, a white t-shirt, and a black jacket with two parallel white stripes on the arms. Making sure she placed the necklace holding her rings on correctly, Lana grabbed her phone and binoculars sitting atop of her dresser before heading out. Smoothing her messy hair, Lana decided that this was the lazy day outfit needed for tonight's battle. "Tonight is relax night, stress free." Lana then muttered under her breath, "I hope."

Down in the living room, they put their shoes on and were quickly sent on their way by Tsunomichi.

Tsunomichi stood in the doorframe yelling at them after they left. "Be safe! Don't get into any fights! Stay away from that cloud boy! Be warm! Don't catch a cold!"

Eventually Lana and Vi walked far away enough that they couldn't hear Tsunomichi's screams of worry anymore.

Sighing very heavily all of a sudden, Vi decided it was the right time to bring it up. "Okay, I waited until we left the house to talk about it. After all, we don't know if we can really trust Tsunomichi."

"Why not? He's cooking for us, keeping the house clean, and managing our situation better than how he did the first time he met us." Lana named off a few things Tsunomichi did.

"He still works for that bastard, Checkerface. I don't trust either of them, especially now because of the memory dealio." Vi thought back on everything the two had done so far. It did not make for a good first impression, or second or third at all. "What's their role in KHR? Why are they invested in the plot? Why did they take us from our world?" She practically snarled out that last question.

Vi brought up another point, wondering exactly how much the nervous assistant seemed to be involved. "Do you think Tsunomichi knows about our memory loss?"

Lana decided to give their guardian the benefit of the doubt, "I thought it would have been Checkerface since Tsunomichi doesn't seem to have any special powers plus he was only following orders and he still is by being our caretaker."

"Both are liable and thus I don't trust either." Vi concluded her thoughts with a short statement and kicked a rock on the side of the road.

"You seem to be getting along with him well though?" Lana wondered what that was about. "Isn't it because he doesn't seem too bad of a person despite being Checkerface's assistant?"

"Part of the plan." Vi grimaced and looked around suspiciously. "I can't have him not trusting me, so I need to act like I trust him."

"Another plan?" Lana sent Vi a wary look and started to back away cautiously from her.

Vi scoffed and stared at Lana who was still backing away slowly. "At any given time, assume that my actions are premeditated."

Lana, at this point, stopped backing away to ask Vi. "What if you sneeze?"

"I don't sneeze." Vi retorted, grinning with all her teeth.

"Really." Lana looked at the other girl sarcastically. "So there's not a video on Facebook of you sneezing like a baby kitten multiple times in a row?"

Vi muttered under her breath, "Damn it, I thought he took that down."

"Nope, I'm pretty sure Ian posted that video a while back." Lana admitted, remembering the video quite clearly. "I'm surprised you didn't see it or threaten him to take it down yet."

"Fucker." Vi cursed out the boy. "I blackmailed him with that video of that time we went to karaoke. How dare he?"

"Are you two in some kind of blackmailing war or something?" Lana wondered since she rarely got involved in their antics.

Vi looked at Lana innocently. "We have a shared account with videos of everyone."

"Wait...everyone?" Lana stared at Vi, her eyes narrowed at the girl trying to play the innocent look.

"Don't worry." Vi calmed the other girl. "No one will ever see the video of you tripping into a stranger's arms and getting dipped."

"Oh my gawd." Lana's face exploded red, "Since when did you two manage to film that?! It was a quick accident that happened out of nowhere!"

"Google Earth. Always taking pictures." Vi managed to say in between laughs. "Or in this case, Ian's constant selfies."

Lana placed her face into her hands, mentally crying in embarrassment of what took place during the incident. Lana swore her accidental tripping will be the death of her whenever she encountered someone new.

The two girls arrived at the school gates when suddenly two Cervello members stepped in front of them.

"We've been expecting you, bearers of the star and moon rings." The two women said simultaneously.


End file.
